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MEMORIAL  ADDRESSES 


LIFE  AND 


MICHAEL  CRAWFORD  KERR, 

(SPEAKER  OF  THE  HOUSE  OF  REPRESENTATIVES  OF  TI1E  UMTED  STATES,) 


DELIVERED    IN    THE 

rv<4.      '          -        i2>. 


HOUSE  OF  REPRESENTATIVES  DECEMBER  16,  1876, 
AND  IN  THE  SENATE  FEBRUARY  27,  1877. 


PUBLISHED  BY  ORDER  OF  CONGRESS. 


WASH I NGTON: 

GOVERNMENT      PRINTING     OFFICE. 
l877. 


4- 


AN  ACT  to  authorize  the  printing  and  distribution  of  the  memorial  addresses  on  the  life 
and  character  of  the  late  Michael  C.  Kerr,  Speaker  of  the  House  of  Representatives. 

Be  it  enacted  by  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives  of  the  United  States  of 
America  in  Congress  assembled,  That  twelve  thousand  copies  of  the  memorial 
addresses  on  the  life  and  character  of  the  late  Michael  C.  Kerr,  Speaker  of  the 
House  of  Representatives,  be  printed,  three  thousand  copies  for  the  use  of  the 
Senate  and  nine  thousand  copies  for  the  use  of  the  House  of  Representatives ; 
and  that  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  have  engraved  and  printed  the  portrait  of 
Mr.  Kerr  to  accompany  the  same,  for  which  the  sum  of  five  hundred  dollars  or  so 
much  thereof  as  may  be  necessary  is  hereby  appropriated  out  of  any  moneys  in 
the  Treasury  not  otherwise  appropriated. 

Approved  March  I,  1877. 


UNIVKKSITY  O 

Ai^IF()KNIA. 


ADDRESSES 


DEATH  OF  MICHAEL  C  KERR. 


PROCEEDINGS  IN  THE  HOUSE. 


TUESDAY,  December  5,  1876. 

Mr.  ANDREW  H.  HAMILTON,  by  unanimous  consent,  submitted  the 
following  resolution,  viz: 

Resoh'ed,T\\z.\.  the  special  order  for  Saturday,  December,  16,  at  qne 
o'clock,  shall  be  the  presentation  of  suitable  resolutions  on  the  death 
of  Hon.  M.  C.  KERR,  Speaker  of  this  House  during  its  last  session, 
and  the  expression  by  the  members  of  the  esteem  in  which  he  was 
held  for  his  unblemished  character,  for  his  eminent  services  as  a 
Representative,  and  for  his  ability  and  impartiality  as  a  presiding 
officer. 

The  resolution  was  unanimously  adopted. 


SATURDAY,  December  16,  1876. 

The  hour  of  one  o'clock  p.  m.  having  arrived,  the  House,  under  its 
previous  order,  proceeded  to  pay  the  last  honors  to  the  memory  of 
Hon.  MICHAEL  C.  KERR,  late  a  Representative  from  the  State  of 
Indiana,  and  Speaker  of  this  House. 

OBSEQUIES   OF    HON.    MICHAEL   C.    KERR. 

Mr.  HAMILTON,  of  Indiana.  Mr.  Speaker,  I  rise  for  the  purpose 
of  submitting  resolutions  of  respect  to  the  memory  of  our  late 


ADDRESS   OF    MR.    HAMILTON   ON   THE 


Speaker;  and  I  ask  that  the  resolution  introduced  by  me,  making 
these  memorial  services  a  special  order  for  to-day  at  one  o'clock,  be 
read. 

The  Clerk  read  as  follows: 

Resolved,  That  the  special  order  for  Saturday,  December  16,  at  one 
o'clock,  shall  be  the  presentation  of  suitable  resolutions  on  the  death 
of  Hon.  M.  C.  KERR,  Speaker  of  this  House  during  its  last  session, 
and  the  expression  by  the  members  of  the  esteem  in  which  he  was 
held  for  his  unblemished  character,  for  his  eminent  services  as  a 
Representative,  and  for  his  ability  and  impartiality  as  a  presiding 
officer. 


ADDRESS  OF    MR.   HAMILTON,  OF  INDIANA. 

Mr.  SPEAKER:  MICHAEL  C.  KERR  was  born  at  Titusville,  in  the 
State  of  Pennsylvania,  March  15,  1827.  When  he  was  twenty-five 
years  of  age  he  entered  upon  the  practice  of  the  law  in  the  city  of 
New  Albany,  Indiana.  At  twenty-seven,  he  was  city  attorney ;  at 
twenty-eight,  prosecuting  attorney  of  Floyd  County;  at  twenty-nine, 
took  his  seat  in  the  legislature  of  Indiana;  at  thirty-five,  was  the 
official  reporter  of  the  supreme  court  of  that  State  and  edited  five 
volumes  of  its  reports;  at  thirty-seven,  was  elected  to  the  Thirty- 
ninth  Congress  of  the  United  States,  and  was  afterward  elected  to 
the  Fortieth,  Forty-first,  Forty-second,  and  Forty-fourth.  He  died 
the  Speaker  of  the  House,  at  seven  o'clock  and  thirty  minutes  p.  m., 
on  the  igth  day  of  August,  A.  D.  1876,  at  Rpckbridge  Alum  Springs, 
in  the  State  of  Virginia,  at  the  age  of  forty-nine  years,  five  months, 
and  four  days. 

Such  is  the  brief  record  of  one  who,  for  twenty-two  years — nearly 
a  quarter  of  a  century — had  been  selected  by  the  people  among 
whom  he  lived  to  hold  important  trusts. 

At  each  step  of  his  career  he  firmly  established  his  footing,  so  that 


I.IKE    AND    CHARACTER    OF    MICHAEL    C.    KERR.  5 

it  was  easy  to  ascend.  Scarcely  had  he  been  ready  to  surrender  an 
office,  when  one  more  prominent  was  tendered  him.  So  well  did  he 
discharge  the  duties  assigned  him,  so  exemplary  was  his  conduct, 
that  the  people  of  his  district  delighted  to  honor  him.  His  home 
was  in  a  portion  of  the  State  which  was  early  settled,  on  the  Ohio 
River,  the  highway  of  travel.  He  was  surrounded  by  able  men,  yet 
he  was  selected  to  be  the  recipient  of  such  honors  as  the  voters  of 
his  own  and  adjoining  counties  could  bestow.  When  he  was  the 
democratic  candidate  for  Congress  in  1872  for  the  State  at  large,  he 
was  defeated  by  only  162  votes,  while  the  other  democratic  candi 
dates  on  the  State  ticket,  with  the  single  exception  of  Thomas  A. 
Hendricks  for  governor,  were  defeated  by  majorities  ranging  from 
533  to  2>568;  and  in  the  November  election  following,  General 
Grant's  majority  was  22,507.  Yet  he  was  not  one  who  could  have 
been  called  a  popular  man.  He  was  not  all  things  to  all  men. 
With  a  will  of  iron,  he  never  could  have  been  bent  from  his  convic 
tions  of  duty.  Place  and  power  would  have  been  too  dearly  bought 
by  even  the  slightest  concession.  He  obtained  the  offices  which  he 
filled  by  the  confidence  which  was  felt  in  his  integrity,  so  convinced 
was  every  one  that  under  no  circumstances  would  he  ever  sacrifice 
his  personal  purity,  the  people's  interests,  or  his  country's  honor.  In 
his  campaigns  he  was  earnest,  but  not  impassioned.  He  appealed  to 
the  judgment,  not  to  the  prejudices,  of  his  audience.  A  candidate 
for  the  Forty-fourth  Congress,  differing  from  the  greater  portion  of 
his  constituents,  who  were  members  of  the  same  party,  on  the  finan 
cial  question,  he  would  not  compromise.  He  made  his  contest 
squarely  on  that  issue.  Though  he  did  not  carry  his  district  by  its 
full  democratic  strength,  yet  he  was  elected  by  a  majority  of  over 
1,500;  many  of  those  who  opposed  his  financial  views  were  so  firmly 
convinced  of  his  integrity  and  so  proud  of  his  record,  that  they  cast 
their  votes  for  him ;  and  yet  he  was  opposed  by  a  man  who  had 
achieved  a  State  reputation,  and  who,  up  to  that  time,  had  stood 


ADDRESS    OF    MR.    HAMILTON    ON    THE 


among  the  foremost  men  of  the  democratic  party  in  that  portion  of 
Indiana. 

Mr.  KERR  took  his  seat  for  the  first  time  in  the  Thirty-ninth  Con 
gress.  He  early  obtained  a  prominent  position,  and  not  only  main 
tained  it,  but  also  advanced  his  reputation  year  by  year. 

During  the  sessions  when  he  stood  upon  the  floor  of  the  House 
he  was  with  the  minority.  It  was  during  stormy  periods;  but  even 
in  the  midst  of  debate  he  commanded  the  respect  of  all,  and  yet  he 
was  at  times  severe  and  denunciatory. 

As  the  presiding  officer,  he  was  calm,  dignified,  and  impartial. 
What  he  might  have  been  as  the  Speaker,  had  he  been  in  perfect 
health,  can  be  easily  determined  by  what  he  was  when  worn  to  a 
shadow,  with  disease  preying  upon  his  vitals,  and  torture  rending  his 
frame.  With  the  exception  of  a  lack  of  breath  and  a  countenance 
which  told  of  suffering,  there  was  nothing  in  his  manner,  as  a  pre 
siding  officer,  of  the  invalid  whose  life  hung  upon  a  thread;  there 
was  none  of  the  irritability  which  usually  accompanies  the  disease 
that  is  incurable. 

Mr.  KERR  was  a  partisan;  I  mean  by  a  "partisan"  one  who  does 
not  swerve  from  the  views  and  principles  which  are  promulgated  by 
those  connected  with  him  in  a  political  organization,  but  on  the  con 
trary,  with  unflinching  tenacity,  clings  to  them  and  advocates  them ; 
carries  out  those  measures  which  advances  them,  and  endeavors  with 
boldness  and  energy  to  place  his  party  in  power — yet,  as  "The 
Speaker,"  he  knew  neither  friend  nor  foe,  he  recognized  only  the 
individual  rights  of  the  members  and  parliamentary  law.  The  moral 
power,  unstained  honor,  true  faith  in  pure  motives,  unswerving  devo 
tion  to  principle,  unsullied  patriotism  is,  as  the  combination  of  genius 
and  talent  or  genius  educated  in  the  mental  organization,  an  inhe 
rent  characteristic,  educated  and  increased  by  the  man  himself,  which 
places  him  upon  an  elevation  from  which  it  were  not  possible  for  him 
to  descend.  This  power  Mr.  KERR  possessed. 


LIFE    AND    CHARACTER    OF    MICHAEL   C.    KERR.  7 

During  all  the  years  of  his  public  service,  not  a  breath  of  suspicion 
was  ever  directed  toward  him  until  a  baseless  charge  was  brought  to 
offset  charges  against  other  public  men — a  charge  so  unfounded  and 
unsupported  that  even  his  political  opponents  blushed  for  their  con 
nection  with  it.  His  intense  energy  sustained  him  during  that  most 
extraordinary  trial.  When  the  accusation  came,  he  asked  no  post 
ponement  on  account  of  ill-health.  Raising  himself  from  what  his 
friends  knew  to  be  his  dying-bed,  his  strong  will  overcame  his  illness, 
put  temporary  life  and  vigor  into  his  emaciated  and  tottering  frame, 
and  bore  him  calm  and  dignified  before  the  committee  and  his  accuser, 
where  he  demonstrated  the  utter  falsity  of  the  charge. 

When  the  negative  man  dies  there  is  no  muffled  bell  tolling  in  the 
heart  of  the  people.  He  is  like  the  worm;  a  part  may  be  cut  off  and 
crushed,  but  each  of  the  hundred  other  parts  has  a  similar  life,  which 
still  continues.  But  when  the  man  of  positive  character — of  high 
sense  of  public  duty  and  a  will  to  carry  out  at  all  hazards  his  con 
victions — is  taken  away,  there  is  a  feeling  that  a  vacancy  has  been 
created  which  cannot  be  filled,  not  that  a  piece  of  the  long  body  of 
humanity  has  been  cut  off  and  that  the  rest  can  crawl  along  as  well 
without  it.  MICHAEL  C.  KERR  could  have  led  a  forlorn  hope.  He 
could  have  breasted  popular  opinions  and  gone  to  the  stake  a  martyr 
to  his  principles. 

At  any  time  the  death  of  a  pure  man,  an  upright  statesman,  occa 
sions  a  blank  which  it  is  difficult  to  fill.  But  in  an  age  like  this, 
when  a  deviation  from  public  probity  is  looked  upon  as  a  slight  affair, 
when  public  men  who  have  soiled  their  hands  oftentimes,  instead  of 
being  denounced  have  been  indorsed  by  the  people,  then  the  loss  of 
a  man  who  has  no  defilement  on  his  person,  nor  a  stain  upon  his  gar 
ments,  is  irreparable.  Years  have  passed,  and  years  to  come  may  sleep 
among  the  by-gones,  and  the  student  not  be  able  to  find  a  more  per 
fect  parallel  to  Andrew  Marvel,  in  his  firmness  and  decision  of  char 
acter  and  in  his  pure  and  lofty  patriotism,  than  is  afforded  by  the  life 


ADDRESS    OF    MR.    HAMILTON    ON    THE 


of  MICHAEL  C.  KERR.  Immaculate  he  stands  out,  a  tall  palm-tree  in 
the  moral  desert  of  the  age,  gladdening  the  heart  of  humanity,  a  cheer 
ing  evidence  that  the  wells  of  political  probity  and  public  honesty 
have  not  all  dried  up. 

The  distinguished  member  of  this  House  from  Massachusetts,  in 
the  Senate  Chamber,  arraigned  the  public  men  of  the  day  for  their 
dishonesty  and  corruption.  How  gratifying  it  must  be  to  an  Ameri 
can  to  turn  from  the  picture  he  draws  to  the  name  (nomen  claruni)  of 
MICHAEL  C.  KERR  on  the  monument  in  a  cemetery  of  the  State 
which  has  reason  to  be  proud  of  the  example  it  has  given  to  the 
country  of  unimpeachable  integrity. 

The  resistance  Mr.  KERR  made  to  the  advance  of  the  disease  which 
was  to  terminate  his  existence ;  the  determination  to  occupy  his  place 
in  this  House  in  spite  of  the  ravages  r^de  upon  his  system  ;  the 
manner  in  which  he  endured  physical  and  mental  torture,  was  mar 
velous.  He  demonstrated  that  he  had  learned — 

Life's  hardest  lesson — without  groan 
To  suffer  and  endure. 

The  final  summons  came.  The  response  was  not  merely  the  calm 
"adsum  "  but  also  the  "  semper  paratus"  of  the  man  who  felt  that  his 
life  had  been  unspotted,  and  who  had  used  well  the  talent  which  had 
been  intrusted  to  him. 

As— 

The  days  lay  down  their  brightness, 

And  bathing  in  splendor  die, 

so  MICHAEL  C.  KERR  went  to  his  rest,  surrounded  by  a  halo  of  moral 
beauty,  followed  to  the  tomb  by  the  regrets  of  the  entire  nation,  and 
left  behind  a  name  synonymous  with  public  probity  and  public  honor. 

He  has  clone  the  work  of  a  true  man ; 

Crown  him,  honor  him,  love  him  ; 
Weep  over  him  tears  of  woman ; 

vStoop  manliest  brows  above  him  ! 


LIFE    AND    CHARACTER   OF    MICHAEL    C.    KERR. 


ADDRESS    OF    yViR.     J^ELLEY,    OF    j^ENNSYLVANIA. 

Mr.  SPEAKER  :  The  sudden  death  of  a  strong  man  in  the  vigor  of 
early  manhood  fills  his  companions  with  awe  and  constrains  the 
strongest  and  most  youthful  of  them  to  pause  and  consider  how  frail 
may  be  his  tenure  of  life.  We  all  remember  the  thrill  that  ran 
through  the  House  when,  near  the  close  of  the  last  session  of  Con 
gress,,  the  local  telegraph  brought  us  notice  of  the  instant  death  of 
that  magnificent  specimen  of  manhood,  Hon.  E.  Y.  Parsons,  of  Ken 
tucky,  whose  manly  beauty  had  commanded  our  admiration,  and 
whose  conversation,  pregnant  with  intelligence,  wit,  and  humor,  had 
charmed  some  of  us  but  a  little  hour  before. 

The  death  of  Hon.  MICHAEL  C.  KERR  was  not  sudden.  We  had  all 
seen  from  day  to  day,  or  week  to  week,  the  fatal  inroads  disease  was 
making  on  his  always  slender  frame.  In  his  case  we  saw  how  high 
purposes  and  overmastering  will  could  hold  death  at  bay;  for  common 
consent  denied  him  three  months  of  life  from  the  day  on  which  he 
entered  upon  his  duties  as  Speaker  of  the  House;  yet  it  was  not 
until  after  the  close  of  an  unusually  long  session  that  in  the  presence 
of  his  wife  and  only  child,  a  son  in  whom  he  hoped  his  virtues  would 
live,  he  welcomed  death  as  release  from  pain,  and  with  serene  cour 
age  passed  to  the  unknown. 

I  first  met  Mr.  KERR  when  he  entered  the  Thirty-ninth  Congress, 
but  years  elapsed  before  I  came  to  know  him  intimately.  Indeed, 
until  we  were  associated  on  the  Committee  of  Ways  and  Means  of 
the  Forty-second  Congress  I  had  felt  that  we  should  never  know  each 
other  well.  Starting  from  almost  any  given  stand-point  in  the  investi 
gation  of  public  questions,  such  were  our  instincts  or  had  been  our 
early  training,  that  we  traveled  in  diverging  lines  and  rested  in  op 
posite  conclusions. 


2  K 


ADDRESS    OF    MR.    KELLEY    ON    THE 


He  seemed  to  me  to  have  little  special  fitness  for  public  life.  He  not 
only  never  attempted  the  arts  of  the  demagogue,  but  loathed  them  in 
his  inmost  soul.  Social  life,  other  than  the  charmed  circle  which  graced 
his  home,  seemed  to  offer  him  no  attraction.  His  conversation  was 
grave,  and  rarely,  if  ever,  sparkled  with  wit  or  was  softened  by  a 
stroke  of  humor.  His  tendencies  were  evidently  not  toward  the  ex 
citement  of  public  life.  He  loved  his  profession — the  law — the  labors 
of  which  were  congenial  to  his  tastes,  and  when  he  sought  honor  at  the 
hands  of  his  fellow-citizens  it  was  in  the  line  of  that  profession ;  thus, 
though  admitted  to  practice  in  1852,  he  was  elected  city  attorney  by 
the  people  of  New  Albany  in  1854;  in  the  next  year  the  citizens  of 
Floyd  County  promoted  him  to  the  office  of  prosecuting  attorney,  and 
in  1862  the  legislature  elected  him  reporter  of  the  supreme  court  of 
Indiana,  which  office  he  filled  till  elected  to  the  Thirty-ninth  Con 
gress.  The  fidelity  and  ability  with  which  he  performed  the  duties 
of  this  office  is  attested  by  the  esteem  in  which  the  five  volumes  of 
reports  that  bear  his  name  are  held  by  the  profession.  During  his 
service  on  the  Committee  of  Ways  and  Means  the  impression  I 
express  was  confirmed  by  the  fact  that  he  was  ever  ready,  though  his 
strength  was  even  then  much  impaired  by  disease,  to  give  special  study 
to  any  question  referred  to  the  committee  which  involved  legal  intri 
cacies  or  nice  judicial  consideration.  I  can  recall  several  such  cases, 
and  remember  that  in  reporting  his  judgment  in  each  of  them  it  was 
the  jurist  and  not  the  politician  who  spoke.  I  am  sure  that  all  our 
colleagues  on  that  committee  will  confirm  my  judgment  on  this  point. 

Yet  Mr.  KERR  was  a  man  of  positive  political  convictions  and  had 
the  courage  of  his  opinions,  which,  on  the  cardinal  questions  that 
divided  parties  during  his  service  in  Congress,  were  those  of  his 
party,  and  his  fearless  expressions  of  them  won  for  him  its  confi 
dence  in  a  remarkable  degree.  So  strong  was  his  will  and  so  abso 
lute  were  his  convictions,  that  it  was  impossible  for  him  to  trim  or 
play  the  time-server.  In  none  of  his  numerous  speeches  during  the 


LIFE    AND   CHARACTER    OF    MICHAEL   C-    KERR.  I  I 

time  Congress  was  engaged  in  the  work  of  reconstruction  can  a  sen 
tence  of  double  or  doubtful  meaning  be  found. 

On  the  question  of  the  best  method  of  raising  revenue  for  the  sup 
port  of  the  Government  and  the  extinguishment  of  the  debt,  he  and 
I  were  in  constant  antagonism.  He  regarded  duties  imposed  either 
incidentally  or  directly  for  the  protection  of  capital  ventured  in  manu 
factures  in  the  hope  of  developing  our  natural  resources  and  estab 
lishing  our  commercial  independence,  as  a  violation  of  the  Constitu 
tion  and  an  injury  to  the  consumer.  He  would,  could  he  have  found 
it  practicable,  have  abolished  all  custom-houses,  and  laboring  to  that 
end  he  steadily  strove  to  reduce  impost  duties  to  the  lowest  possible 
rate  and  to  limit  their  application  to  the  smallest  number  of  articles. 
Here,  again,  the  integrity  of  his  intellect  and  purposes  was  shown. 
He  left  it  to  others  to  prate  of  revenue  reform  while  really  intending 
the  establishment  of  free  trade  and  the  overthrow  of  the  protective 
system.  He  had  faith  in  the  intelligence  of  the  people,  and  believed 
that  he  who  discussed  such  questions  was  bound  to  state  his  faith 
with  perfect  clearness,  and  to  submit  to  those  he  would  influence  the 
arguments  on  which  it  rested. 

He  was  a  whole-hearted  and  courageous  man,  and  none  could  know 
him  well,  as  I  learned  to  do  in  the  committee-room  and  during  the 
last  session  of  Congress,  when  his  sufferings  frequently  attracted  me 
to  his  side,  without  finding  under  his  rigid  exterior  a  gentleness  of 
character  and  a  depth  of  affection  that  were  most  winning. 

If  truth  is  made  apparent  by  the  vigorous  conflict  of  opinion,  and 
if,  as  I  believe,  the  grandest  treasures  of  a  republic  are  its  men  of 
manly  purpose  and  dauntless  will,  our  country  suffered  greatly  in  the 
early  death  of  Mr.  KERR  ;  for,  while  life  and  strength  permitted,  he 
was  ever  ready  to  discuss  with  absolute  integrity  of  purpose  and 
expression  every  question  that  concerned  the  welfare  of  the  Re 
public. 

It  must  have  been  the  strength  of  his  convictions  on  political 


12  ADDRESS  OF  MR.  RAYMOND  ON  THE 

questions  that  tempted  him  to  yield  to  the  persuasive  voice  of  friends 
and  enter  the  arena  of  national  politics,  and  I  have  often  thought 
had  it  not  been  for  the  exciting  labors  into  which  he  was  thus  drawn, 
his  life  would  probably  have  been  prolonged  and  his  name  filled  an 
exalted  place  in  the  judicial  records  of  his  adopted  State  and  the 
nation  at  large. 


ADDRESS  OF    M.F\.    WAYMOND,   OF   INDIANA. 

Mr.  SPEAKER  :  We  have  assembled  on  an  occasion  of  unusual  so 
lemnity.  The  late  distinguished  Speaker  of  the  House  of  Represent 
atives,  Hon.  MICHAEL  C.  KERR,  is  no  more.  He  was  stricken  by 
the  hand  of  death  soon  after  the  close  of  the  first  session  of  this  Con 
gress.  He  has  passed  away;  his  mission  on  earth  has  ceased  and 
his  labors  have  been  finished.  We  shall  see  his  face  and  hear  his 
voice  no  more,  but  his  good  name,  his  well-earned  fame,  and  his  no 
ble  qualities  still  live  in  the  memory  of  all  who  knew  him,  and  will 
not  be  soon  forgotten.  Universal  sympathy  was  extended  to  him 
during  his  protracted  sufferings  from  mortal  disease,  and  the  whole 
country  beheld  with  surprise  and  admiration  the  pertinacity  and  brav 
ery  exhibited  by  him  in  the  discharge  of  the  responsible  and  laborious 
duties  of  his  office.  A  nation,  without  respect  to  party,  mourns  his 
untimely  departure,  and  it  becomes  appropriately  the  duty  of  those 
who  were  his  associates  on  this  floor  to  render  a  heartfelt  and  formal 
tribute  of  respect  to  his  memory. 

It  is  a  charitable  sentiment,  at  least,  that  no  one  should  speak  ill 
of  the  dead ;  that  their  errors,  faults,  and  frailties,  whatever  they  may 
have  been,  should  be  covered  by  the  mantle  of  oblivion;  but  it  does 
not  follow  from  this  that  their  virtues,  their  endearing  qualities,  their 
noble  deeds,  and  valuable  services  to  the  state  should  remain  unre- 


LIFE    AND    CHARACTER    OF    MICHAEL    C.    KERR.  13 

corded  and  suffered  to  pass  without  appropriate  notice  and  action  on 
the  part  of  their  associates  and  survivors.  These  should  be  appro 
priately  recorded  and  transmitted,  that  the  light  which  once  shone 
and  illumined  the  pathway  of  thousands  should  not  return  to  dark 
ness.  It  is  a  duty  devolving  upon  the  living  to  perpetuate  the  mem 
ory  of  those  who  were  good  or  great,  who  achieved  distinction  in 
some  department  or  sphere  of  life,  who  filled  high  positions  with 
credit  to  themselves  and  benefit  to  their  country,  and  who  by  their 
talents  or  genius  have  rendered  valuable  service  to  mankind.  The 
character  and  personal  history  of  such  belong  to  the  people,  and 
should  descend  as  a  legacy  to  posterity.  What  is  a  country  without 
a  biography  of  its  distinguished  men  and  its  public  benefactors  ? 
What  a  blank  would  there  have  been  in  the  history  of  Greece  and 
Rome  if  there  had  been  no  biographical  sketches  or  special  mention 
made  of  their  philosophers,  poets,  orators,  statesmen,  and  heroes !  It 
would  have  been  a  shadow  without  substance ;  a  skeleton  divested 
of  those  vital  parts  essential  to  form — life  and  beauty.  The  charac 
ter  of  a  nation  and  the  criterion  of  its  civilization  may  be  judged  by 
the  intelligence,  honesty,  and  purity  of  those  who  are  appointed  its 
rulers.  It  is  our  boast  to  rejoice  in  the  eminent  qualities  of  the  found 
ers  of  this  Republic.  While  the  spirit  of  freedom  pervades  the  minds 
of  the  American  people  they  cannot  cease  to  hold  in  veneration  the 
illustrious  champions  of  independence.  The  names  of  Washington, 
Adams,  Franklin,  Jay  and  Hamilton,  Marshall  and  Jefferson,  will  be 
handed  down  from  generation  to  generation  and  sounded  with  praise 
while  free  institutions  exist  upon  the  earth.  Those  names  will  be 
transmitted  as  synonyms  of  great  ideas — liberty  and  self-government. 
The  duties  and  responsibilities  of  men  never  cease.  Each  genera 
tion  at  every  stage  of  progress  will  have  new  perplexities  to  encoun 
ter,  new  labors  to  perform,  and  new  difficulties  to  surmount.  "  Peace 
hath  its  victories  no  less  renowned  than  war,"  and  to  the  statesman 
of  the  present  time  there  is  open  a  wide  and  constantly  expanding 


14  ADDRESS  OF  MR.  RAYMOND  ON  THE 

field  of  usefulness,  in  which  there  is  room  for  the  exercise  of  disinter 
ested  patriotism,  of  the  highest  order  of  abilities,  and  of  the  most 
diversified  and  extensive  knowledge.  Hence  while  our  Government 
endures,  new  events  will  enter  into  its  history,  and  new  actors,  from 
time  to  time,  will  appear  upon  the  political  stage.  Their  names  will 
deserve  to  be  honored  for  whatever  valuable  service  they  may  ren 
der  to  the  country,  for  their  eminent  qualities,  and  for  their  fidelity  to 
the  great  principles  of  self-government. 

The  name  of  the  late  Speaker  deserves  to  be  mentioned  in  honor 
able  connection  with  his  departed  and  distinguished  predecessors.  I 
shall  make  but  few  allusions  to  his  personal  history,  but  leave  this 
duty  to  those  who  have  been  longer  and  more  intimately  acquainted 
with  him  than  myself;  and  what  has  been  already  said  in  this  respect 
by  others  need  not  be  repeated  by  me.  No  fulsome  adulation  can 
add  anything  to  his  well-earned  reputation  or  to  the  perpetuity  of  his 
fame.  I  shall  attempt  nothing  beyond  what  a  brief  personal  acquaint 
ance  with  him,  the  impressions  formed  of  his  character,  and  what  may 
be  inferred  from  his  public  acts,  will  justify  me  in  stating.  Though 
cut  down  in  the  prime  of  life,  at  that  period  when  the  mental  facul 
ties  had  just  attained  their  full  development,  he  had  already  achieved 
distinction  in  his  own  State  for  his  public  services  and  sterling  ability, 
and  had  also  won  for  himself  a  national  reputation  as  a  legislator. 

Mr.  KERR  was  endowed  by  nature  with  a  strong  and  well-balanced 
intellect.  It  was  of  the  synthetic  order,  and  peculiarly  adapted  to 
the  investigation  of  subjects  requiring  the  highest  reasoning  powers. 

Though  an  able  and  forcible  speaker,  he  was  not  gifted  with  the 
commanding  eloquence  of  a  Clay  or  Webster;  but  as  a  practical 
statesman  he  evinced  unusual  sagacity  and  a  thorough  comprehen 
sion  of  public  affairs,  as  well  as  of  the  theory  and  powers  of  the  Fed 
eral  Government.  With  ample  opportunities,  health,  and  years,  he 
would  have  ranked  among  the  foremost  statesmen  the  country  has 
produced.  His  talents  were  of  a  high  order,  but  he  did  not  alone 


LIFE    AND    CHARACTER    OF    MICHAEL   C.    KERR.  15 

| 

trust  to  natural  endowments.  His  life  from  early  age  was  that  of  an 
ardent  and  indefatigable  student.  His  chief  ambition  was  to  acquire 
knowledge  and  gain  mastery  of  whatever  he  undertook.  His  pecu 
niary  circumstances  in  early  life  were  very  limited,  but  his  ambition 
to  obtain  a  good  education,  both  literary  and  professional,  was  reached 
by  his  devotion  to  hard  study  and  by  his  indomitable  perseverance. 
A  successful  career  of  professional  life  opened  before  him.  His  tal 
ents  and  qualifications  were  duly  appreciated.  He  had  but  fairly 
entered  upon  this  course  when  he  was  called  by  the  people  to  impor 
tant  public  trusts. 

As  a  member  of  the  legislature  of  Indiana,  as  a  reporter  of  the 
supreme  court  of  that  State,  as  a  Representative  in  Congress  and 
Speaker  of  the  House  of  Representatives,  he  discharged  every  duty 
with  unswerving  fidelity  and  with  rare  ability.  In  every  capacity  of 
public  employment  which  he  was  elected  to  fill  he  exhibited  the  traits 
of  honesty,  inflexible  integrity,  and  a  sacred  regard  for  the  inviola 
bility  of  public  trust. 

His  honesty,  purity  of  character,  and  integrity  were  unimpeachable 
and  above  suspicion.  He  never  compromised  his  principles  for  the 
sake  of  expediency,  but  carried  his  convictions  of  justice,  honor,  and 
right  into  whatever  he  undertook.  He  guarded  the  public  interests 
intrusted  in  his  hands  with  the  same  jealousy  and  care  that  he  would 
his  own  private  affairs.  He  occupied  a  position  in  American  pol 
itics  similar  to  that  attributed  to  Aristides,  "surnamed  the  just,"  in 
the  affairs  of  Athens.  Like  the  great  "  commoner,"  Henry  Clay,  he 
"  would  rather  be  right  than  President" 

A  man's  character  is  generally  formed  by  himself.  Adventitious 
circumstances  may  divert  the  mind  into  unexpected  channels  for  a 
while,  but  when  there  is  an  inflexible  purpose  founded  upon  sound 
convictions,  the  character  of  the  man  will  be  molded  in  accordance 
therewith. 

Mr.  KERR  shaped  the  course  of  his  life  in  pursuance  to  a  fixed  pur- 


l6  ADDRESS  OF  MR.  RAYMOND  ON  THE 

r- 

pose.  The  acquisition  of  knowledge  was  one  of  the  chief  objects  of 
his  life,  and  his  assiduity  and  perseverance  to  obtain  this  end  were 
seldom  equaled.  He  had  none  of  that  ambition  that  would  lead  him 
to  aspire  to  places  of  honor  by  any  means  that  would  conflict  with 
his  well-confirmed  notions  of  justice,  morality,  and  integrity.  He 
had  no  sectional  ambition  or  animosity  to  gratify.  His  patriotism 
was  of  that  character  not  bounded  by  State  lines,  but  which  compre 
hended  the  interests  of  the  entire  country.  He  was  ever  a  champion 
of  the  great  principles  of  self-government  and  constitutional  liberty. 
He  was  ever  jealous  and  watchful  of  all  encroachments  of  power 
against  the  bulwark  of  freedom,  the  Federal  Constitution. 

His  recent  services  as  Speaker  of  this  House  afford  us  a  clear  con 
ception  of  his  nature  and  the  sublime  traits  of  his  character.  In  pur 
suance  to  his  convictions  of  duty,  he  essayed  each  day  to  preside  over 
the  deliberations  of  the  House,  and  only  retired  from  his  post  when 
his  wearied  and  exhausted  frame  would  no  longer  permit  him  to  re 
main.  His  indomitable  will  and  wonderful  energies  supported  him 
after  it  was  apparent  that  his  physical  powers  were  unequal  to  the 
task.  But  hope  seemed  to  cheer  him  on  with  its  delusive  promises. 
His  mind  was  clear  and  unsubdued,  while  the  earthly  tabernacle  was 
sinking  from  the  consuming  fires  within.  Summer  came,  and  its  de 
pressing  heat  so  overcame  him  that  he  was  at  length  forced  to  aban 
don  his  post  of  duty,  leave  the  city,  and  seek  refuge  in  the  salubrious 
atmosphere  amid  the  mountains  of  Virginia.  But  the  change  pro 
duced  only  a  temporary  effect.  His  soul  calmly  resigned  the  tene 
ment  no  longer  fitted  to  retain  it,  and  took  its  peaceful  flight  to  that 
"house  not  made  with  hands,  eternal  in  the  heavens."  The  death  of 
such  a  man  as  the  late  Speaker,  at  this  perplexing  period  of  our  his 
tory,  is  a  national  calamity. 

His  broad  patriotism,  his  unsullied  integrity,  and  his  unswerving 
fidelity  to  principle  and  justice,  were  such  as  commanded  the  respect 
of  the  whole  country,  and  would  have  proved  invaluable  had  he  con- 


LIFE   AND    CHARACTER   OF    MICHAEL    C.    KERR.  17 

tinned  with  us.  The  commonwealth  whose  interests  he  has  so  faith 
fully  guarded  will  long  miss  his  services  in  the  national  councils  and 
mourn  the  loss  of  one  of  her  brightest  jewels. 

His  life  was  gentle,  and  the  elements 

So  mixed  in  him,  that  Nature  might  stand  up 

And  say  to  all  the  world,  This  was  a  man. 


ADDRESS  OF   MR.    MONROE,  OF  OHIO. 

Mr.  SPEAKER:  I  was  not  favored  with  such  a  degree  of  intimacy 
with  the  late  distinguished  Speaker  of  this  House  as  was  enjoyed  by 
many  members,  and  hence  may  not  present  so  accurate,  and  certainly 
cannot  present  so  complete,  a  view  of  his  character  as  could  others. 
But  such  opportunity  as  I  had  to  become  acquainted  with  him  greatly 
interested  me,  and  it  may  not  be  amiss  to  state  frankly  just  the  im 
pression  which  his  qualities  of  mind  and  heart  made  upon  me. 

In  listening  to  him,  whether  in  conversation  or  in  debate,  the  first 
quality  which  arrested  attention  was  his  intellectual  clearness.  His 
thought  came  to  him  well  defined  and  in  a  strong  light.  He  had  a 
certain,  definite  thing  to  say;  he  knew  precisely  what  it  was  and 
what  he  wished  to  accomplish  by  saying  it.  What  he  clearly  saw, 
he  clearly  communicated.  The  hearer  could  seldom  be  in  doubt  as 
to  his  meaning.  He  was  called  reticent.  But  until  he  could  think 
and  speak  clearly,  he  had  nothing  to  say.  The  habit  of  his  mind 
could  accept  no  other  conditions  of  speech.  In  debate,  his  single 
aim  was  to  be  understood.  No  temptation  to  appear  eloquent  or 
sparkling  could  turn  him  aside  from  this  end.  His  mind  rejected 
ornament.  Illustration  by  means  of  comparison  and  figures  of  speech, 
he  did  not  much  need.  A  severe  simplicity  and  directness  marked  all 
his  efforts. 

With  this  perspicuity  of  thought  and  expression,  not  unnaturally, 
was  associated  a  high  degree  of  intellectual  force.  He  had  power 


i8 


ADDRESS    OF    MR.    MONROE    ON   THE 


of  statement,  felicity  in  arrangement,  logical  skill,  and  depth  of  con 
viction.  These  qualities  gave  great  vigor  and  effectiveness  to  his  dis 
course.  His  argument  always  looked  strong,  if  not  impregnable,  and 
he  was  always  in  earnest.  One  who  differed  from  him  and  refused  to 
accept  his  conclusions,  was  compelled  to  admit  that  they  were  urged 
with  a  certain  convincing  force  which  it  was  not  easy  to  resist. 

To  these  intellectual  qualities  must  be  added  another  which  was 
largely  moral — the  judicial  candor  and  fairness  of  his  mind.  This 
was  not  always  very  apparent  upon  first  acquaintance.  He  exhibited 
a  certain  outward  severity  in  debate  which  did  not  give  promise  of 
that  capacity  for  impartial  judgment  which  he  really  possessed.  His 
sharp-cut  sentences  sometimes  wounded  the  feelings  and  gave  of 
fense.  But  further  acquaintance  showed  that  this  sternness  was  more 
of  manner  than  of  spirit.  It  was  in  great  measure  due  to  nervous 
conditions  resulting  from  ill-health,  and  did  injustice  to  his  real  char 
acter.  One  who  approached  him  to  call  attention  to  new  aspects  of 
questions  under  discussion,  found  him  not  only  an  attentive  listener 
but  often  willing  to  admit  a  measurable  modification  of  his  own  views. 
His  convictions,  when  clearly  formed,  were,  no  doubt,  firmly  held;  but 
he  antagonized  principles  rather  than  men,  and  respected  the  charac 
ter  and  the  argument  of  his  opponent.  This  quality  of  judicial  fair 
ness  became  more  apparent  after  his  election  to  the  office  of  Speaker. 
I  think  it  must  then  have  been  evident  to  the  whole  House  that  it 
was  his  earnest  desire  to  administer  the  duties  of  his  high  place  with 
perfect  impartiality. 

Closely  allied  to  this  quality  of  judicial  candor  wai  his  undoubted 
goodness  of  heart.  It  must  be  admitted  that  this,  also,  was  not 
always  freely  acknowledged  at  first.  In  the  Forty-second  Congress 
I  sometimes  heard  him  spoken  of  as  cold,  reserved,  and  unsympa 
thetic.  But  those  who  knew  him  well  felt  that  this  coldness  was 
superficial.  It  sprung  in  part  from  a  diffidence  which  was  both  gen 
uine  and  creditable.  The  really  modest  estimate  which  he  placed 


LIFE    AND    CHARACTER   OF    MICHAEL    C.    KERR.  19 

upon  his  own  powers  and  accomplishments  made  him  slow  to  en 
gage  the  attention  of  others,  except  as  duty  demanded.  His  re 
served  manner  grew,  in  part,  also,  out  of  the  state  of  his  health. 
We  sometimes  forget  that  that  uninterrupted  flow  of  cordial  feeling 
which  is  so  charmingly  expressed  in  the  manner  of  some  men,  is 
often  as  much  the  result  of  sound  physical  conditions  as  of  sweet 
ness  of  disposition.  We  should  not  mistake  a  bad  digestion  for  a 
bad  heart,  or  confound  a  torpid  liver  with  moral  indifference  to  the 
happiness  of  others.  All  who  had  admission  to  the  inner  circle  of 
his  friendships  bear  witness  that  he  was  essentially  warm-hearted, 
kindly,  and  affectionate,  and  that  his  attachments  were  as  tenacious 
and  enduring  as  they  were  disinterested  and  cordial.  That  he  deeply 
appreciated  kindness  and  a  just  estimation  from  others  was  espe 
cially  evident  on  one  marked  occasion,  when  several  gentlemen  had 
shown  a  friendly  interest  in  his  good  name  upon  this  floor.  With 
tears  coursing  down  his  cheeks,  he  said  to  a  distinguished  member  of 
this  House,  "  Convey  to  those  gentlemen  the  thanks  of  a  dying  man." 
It  was  done,  and  the  message  was  received  with  a  feeling  almost  as 
deep  as  that  which  prompted  it. 

But,  after  all,  the  distinguished  and  crowning  virtue  of  his  charac 
ter  was  his  absolute  integrity  and  uprightness.  Of  course  I  do  not 
mean  merely  that  he  was  honest  and  pure  in  all  pecuniary  affairs,  but 
that  he  had  a  hearty  love  for  truth  and  rectitude  for  their  own  sake 
and  in  all  their  applications.  He  had  the  keenest  sense  of  honor, 
and  feared  a  stain  upon  his  fame  more  than  political  defeat — more 
than  death.  A  fact  bearing  upon  this  point  I  have  from  the  best  au 
thority — that  of  his  able  successor  in  this  place.  The  last  time  he 
was  nominated  for  Congress  it  was  well  known  that  he  was,  in  the 
phrase  of  the  day,  "a  hard-money  man."  But  there  were  large  num 
bers  of  "soft-money  men"  in  his  district,  and  his  friends  feared  that 
the  open  advocacy  of  his  views  would  greatly  reduce  his  majority,  if 
it  did  not  result  in  his  defeat.  A  committee  waited  upon  him  and 


20 


ADDRESS  OF  MR.  HOLMAN  ON  THE 


suggested  that  it  might  be  more  prudent  in  his  addresses  to  the  peo 
ple  not  to  speak  at  length  upon  the  importance  of  a  return  to  specie 
payments.  "Gentlemen,"  was  his  reply,  "it  would  be  better  that  I 
should  be  defeated,  and  that  my  party  should  be  defeated  in  me,  than 
that  I  should  knowingly  lead  one  man  to  vote  for  me  under  a  delu 
sion." 

To  conclude,  though  often  weak  in  body  he  was  thoroughly  strong 
and  sound  in  all  that  constitutes  a  rational  being — sound  in  mind, 
sound  in  heart,  sound  in  character;  and  he  died,  as  such  a  man  might 
be  expected  to  die,  in  the  profession  of  that  Christian  faith  whose  mis 
sion  it  is  to  impart  health  and  soundness  to  the  race  of  man. 

To  us  it  belongs  to  speak  rather  of  character  as  it  is  revealed  to  us 
here  than  of  the  destiny  which  awaits  it  hereafter;  but  as  I  sat  this 
morning  pondering  my  sad  and  yet  inspiring  theme,  there  involun 
tarily  recurred  to  me  the  well-known  lines  of  that  remarkable  man 
of  our  time  who  has  written  the  sweetest  and  most  thoughtful  me 
morial  poetry  in  all  literature: 

And,  doubtless,  unto  him  is  given 

A  life  that  bears  immortal  fruit 

In  such  great  offices  as  suit 
The  full-grown  energies  of  heaven. 


ADDRESS    OF    yViR.    DOLMAN,     OF    JNDIANA. 

MR.  SPEAKER:  In  the  closing  hour  of  the  last  session  of  Congress,  as 
we  were  preparing  to  leave  this  hall  and  return  after  a  weary  absence 
to  the  blessed  shelter  of  our  homes,  in  the  midst  of  the  tumult  and 
excitement  incident  to  that  event  there  was  a  pervading  sentiment 
that  we  could  not  adjourn  without  expressing  to  MICHAEL  C.  KERR, 
the  then  honored  Speaker  of  this  House,  then  absent  from  the  capital 
and  seeking  in  the  mountains  of  Virginia  a  re-invigoration  of  his  fail 
ing  powers,  some  words  of  sympathy;  and  we  all  remember  how  well 


LIFE   AND   CHARACTER   OF    MICHAEL   C.    KERR.  21 

the  universal  sentiment  of  this  House  was  expressed  by  the  eloquent 
and  kindly  words  of  the  distinguished  gentleman  from  Massachusetts, 
[Mr.  BANKS.]  This  message  of  friendship  and  of  generous  sympa 
thy  from  his  associates  in  a  high  public  trust,  from  this  House, 
representing  the  views  and  guarding  the  fortunes  of  a  great  people, 
was  the  last  utterance  that  fell  upon  his  ear  from  the  great  theater  on 
which  his  own  high  reputation  had  been  achieved,  and  from  which 
he  had  so  recently  withdrawn  never  to  return.  Who  shall  say  how 
soothing  and  consoling  this  message  was  to  our  departed  friend  in 
that  final  vicissitude  of  life !  As  it  fell  from  the  lips  of,  his  distin 
guished  associate  and  friend,  the  gentleman  from  New  York,  [Mr. 
Cox,]  who  shall  say  how  it  buoyed  up  his  drooping  spirits!  The 
sympathy  of  a  nation,  mingling  with  the  love  of  wife  and  child  and 
friends,  closing  the  one  life  even  while  the  new  opened  with  glimpses 
of  the  infinite  and  the  immortal ! 

We  had  scarcely  reached  our  homes  when  the  announcement  came, 
MICHAEL  C.  KERR  is  dead,  and  the  heart  of  a  great  people  uttered  a 
sigh  of  regret.  MICHAEL  C.  KERR  had  scarcely  reached  the  prime 
of  his  manhood ;  he  had  been  in  public  life  for  a  comparatively  brief 
period;  and  yet  his  natural  abilities  and  attainments  and  the  struggles 
of  an  honorable  ambition  had  placed  him  in  the  foremost  rank  of  the 
citizens  of  the  Republic,  while  his  just  conceptions  of  public  duty,  his 
singleness  of  purpose  to  promote  the  general  welfare  in  the  employ 
ment  of  political  power,  and,  above  all,  the  severe  and  impartial 
integrity  of  his  judgment  in  public  affairs,  had  secured  to  him  respect 
and  confidence  of  a  great  people.  Surely  his  was  a  fortunate  life ; 
fortunate  for  his  country,  of  high  honor  for  himself. 

Mr.  KERR,  with  more  than  ordinary  attainments  in  the  general  field 
of  intellectual  culture,  had  devoted  his  most  valuable  and  maturer 
years  to  the  learning  connected  with  his  public  duties.  His  chief 
study  was  the  science  of  government,  the  laws  of  political  economy, 
and  the  principles  of  the  social  fabric  of  life  in  its  relations  to  the 


22  ADDRESS  OF  MR.  HOLMAN  ON  THE 

state.  He  was  not  an  enthusiast,  but  a  severe  and  impartial  seeker 
after  truth.  He  was  in  no  sense  a  Utopian.  His  opinions  were 
based  on  precedents  and  the  teachings  of  history,  and  he  questioned 
with  impartial  purpose  the  institutions  of  government  which  have 
perished  as  well  as  those  which  have  survived,  for  the  just  principles 
of  political  society  and  the  true  relations  of  the  citizen  to  the  state. 
His  opinions  were  convictions,  and  he  stood  by  them  with  unflinch 
ing  courage.  His  temper  was  neither  compromising  nor  conciliatory ; 
he  sought  to  convince,  not  to  persuade,  and  shrank  from  no  contest 
where  his  principles  were  involved.  He  had  carefully  studied  the 
early  history  of  the  Republic,  and  was  thoroughly  imbued  with  the 
spirit  and  the  opinions  of  its  founders.  He  esteemed  the  vigorous 
maintenance  of  constitutional  limitations  on  delegated  power  the  most 
perfect  safeguard  of  public  liberty  that  human  intelligence  could  de 
vise.  His  theories  of  the  social  compact  limited  the  domain  of  gov 
ernment  to  the  maintenance  of  public  order  and  the  administration 
of  justice,  leaving  all  else  to  the  untrammeled  enterprise  of  the  citizen 
and  the  moral  power  that  springs  from  self-reliance,  enlightened  con 
science,  and  cultivated  intelligence  of  the  people. 

He  was  a  true  American,  and  gloried  in  the  commanding  influence 
of  his  country  among  the  nations;  and  following  the  result  of  his 
deductions  as  to  the  just  principles  of  government,  as  an  outgrowth  of 
the  implied  social  compact,  he  believed  in  the  fraternity  of  the  na 
tions,  "that  the  world  of  mankind  should  not  be  considered  in  frag 
ments,  but  that  all  peoples  were  reciprocally  dependent ; "  hence  he 
insisted  that  the  intercourse  of  the  nations  should  be  untrammeled, 
that  true  statesmanship  would  bring  the  cultivated  world  together, 
and  that  commerce  should  be  free. 

As  a  legislator  Mr.  KERR  accepted  the  maxim  "  the  world  is  gov 
erned  too  much."  He  abhorred  special  and  class  legislation  and  every 
form  of  monopoly,  demanding  the  just  equality  of  all  the  citizens  of 
the  state.  He  held  that  a  plain,  simple  government,  with  severe 


LIFE   AND   CHARACTER   OF    MICHAEL   C.    KERR.  23 

limitations  on  delegated  powers,  frugally  administered,  was  the  noblest 
outgrowth  of  the  cultivated  intelligence  of  our  age. 

While  neither  impulsive  nor  an  enthusiast,  but  cool,  dispassionate, 
and  logical  in  his  mental  organization,  he  was  most  earnest  and  de 
voted  in  his  friendships,  but  asked  nor  gave  quarter  in  conflicts  of 
opinion.  He  was  frank,  ingenuous,  and  incapable  of  deception,  a 
lover  of  truth  and  justice,  controlled  by  a  high  sense  of  duty,  even  if 
time  shall  here  and  there  demonstrate,  as  it  reasonably  may,  the  falli 
bility  of  his  judgments,  (and  what  perfection  in  judgment  or  attain 
ments  in  statesmanship  can  escape  this  ?)  the  records  of  Congress 
will  for  all  coming  time  bear  testimony  with  what  unswerving  fidelity, 
in  the  light  of  his  conscientious  convictions,  he  fulfilled  his  high  trust 
as  a  representative  of  the  people.  He  followed  his  principles  with 
out  fear  or  hesitation  to  their  logical  results  as  a  Representative  on 
this  floor.  No  fear  of  the  consequences  to  himself  deterred  him.  He 
yielded  without  reserve  to  the  mastery  of  his  convictions,  and  trusted 
to  time  and  events  to  vindicate  the  integrity  of  his  opinions. 

Mr.  KERR  was  not  in  the  ordinary  sense  of  the  term  an  orator. 
He  never  seemed  to  speak  with  a  view  to  rhetorical  effect.  He  sel 
dom  if  ever  appealed  to  the  passions  or  prejudices  of  his  hearers;  yet 
hz  was  the  master  of  a  very  high  order  of  eloquence.  He  had  a 
complete  mastery  of  the  English  language.  His  style  of  composition 
was  elevated  and  elegant,  compact,  clear,  and  logical;  his  delivery 
at  times  fervid  or  impassioned,  and  always  clear,  distinct,  and  power 
ful.  In  the  current  debates  on  this  floor  his  distinct,  concise,  positive, 
and  logical  method  of  reasoning  never  failed  to  arrest  the  attention 
of  the  House. 

Mr.  KERR  was  not  only  an  intellectual  man,  but  his  will  was  abso 
lutely  the  master — a  mastery  that  only  death  itself  could  subdue. 
After  his  election  as  Speaker  of  this  House,  surrounded  by  embarrass 
ment  in  arranging  the  details  of  organization,  prostrated  by  a  fatal 
malady,  feeble  and  suffering,  he  applied  himself  to  the  task  with 


24  ADDRESS  OF  MR.  BURCHARD  ON  THE 

unfaltering  purpose.  When  he  left  this  Hall  never  to  return,  with  the 
hand  of  death  upon  him,  the  fortitude  of  his  mind  was  unshaken. 
The  fresh  breezes  of  the  mountains  did  not  arrest  the  decay  of  nature, 
and  with  the  fortitude  of  a  Christian  and  the  composure  of  a  sage, 
assured  of  an  honorable  remembrance  by  his  country,  he  met  the 
inevitable  fate — 

Like  one  who  wraps  the  drapery  of  Lis  couch 
About  him  and  lies  down  to  pleasant  dreams. 

MICHAEL  C.  KERR  is  dead.  The  record  of  a  good  life  is  complete. 
May  that  record  perpetuate  his  virtues  and  the  services  he  has  ren 
dered  to  his  country  as  long  as  time  shall  endure. 


^ADDRESS  OF  yvin.  BURCHARD,  OF  ILLINOIS. 

Mr.  SPEAKER:  Although  Death  with  busy  hand  has  repeatedly 
snatched  Senators  and  Representatives  from  the  post  of  duty,  never 
before  has  he  stalked  boldly  into  this  Hall  and  taken  away  a  Speaker 
of  the  House — its  presiding  officer  and  head. 

During  this  Congress  the  grim  tyrant  has  unmistakenly  displayed 
his  resistless  power  and  remorseless  will.  When  the  Representatives 
assembled  one  year  ago,  at  the  commencement  of  the  first  regular 
session,  the  Capitol  was  draped  in  mourning.  Henry  Wilson,  Vice- 
President  of  the  United  States,  had  been  stricken  and  numbered  with 
the  dead.  His  mortal  remains,  with  national  honors,  as  became  the 
office  and  the  man,  had  been  borne  to  their  last  resting-place  in  the 
bosom  of  the  commonwealth  he  so  warmly  loved  and  so  long  repre 
sented. 

Again  assembled,  the  somber  emblems  of  sorrow  that  surround  the 
vacant  Speaker's  seat  and  front  the  waiting  Representatives  antici 
pate  the  official  announcement  that  MICHAEL  C.  KERR,  the  Speaker 
of  the  House,  for  the  last  time  has  presided  over  its  deliberations. 
To-day  we  banish  the  excitement  of  legislative  debate  and  withdraw 


LIFE   AND   CHARACTER   OF    MICHAEL    C.    KERR.  25 

our  thoughts  from  the  great  events  and  grave  and  momentous  ques 
tions  of  the  hour,  to  bestow  the  accustomed  and  merited  honors  and 
pay  a  grateful  tribute  to  the  memory  of  a  friend  and  associate,  a  Rep 
resentative  of  the  people,  and  a  presiding  officer  of  the  House. 

Rightly  to  estimate  the  public  character  and  services  of  MICHAEL 
C.  KERR,  it  must  be  considered  in  connection  with  the  times  in  which 
he  lived  and  the  great  questions  in  which  he  took  a  part. 

Mr.  KERR  entered  congressional  life  in  the  closing  scenes  of  a  his 
toric  drama,  played  by  real  and  living  characters  in  successive  acts, 
which  opened  with  legislative  discussion,  culminated  in  bloody  strife, 
and  ended  in  the  establishment  of  universal  liberty  and  political 
equality  throughout  the  nation.  For  nearly  a  century  slavery,  the 
evil  genius  of  American  institutions,  presaged  disaster  and  endan 
gered  the  perpetuity  of  the  Union.  Its  overthrow  and  utter  annihila 
tion  was  the  grand  historic  event  in  the  first  century  of  the  Republic. 
Its  constitutional  prohibition  had  already  been  secured  (and  the  last 
of  the  confederate  forces  had  surrendered)  when  in  December,  1865, 
Mr.  KERR  became  a  member  of  the  Thirty-ninth  Congress  as  Repre 
sentative  from  the  State  of  Indiana.  He,  with  the  other  statesmen  of 
that  Congress,  was  brought  at  once  to  consider  what  plan  was  safest 
and  wisest  for  the  restoration  of  the  seceding  States  to  their  practi 
cal  relations  to  the  Union.  Great  constitutional  and  legal  questions 
were  involved. 

His  mind,  trained  to  habits  of  logical  reasoning  and  judicial  investi 
gation,  subjected  every  measure  to  the  closest  scrutiny.  He  did  not 
shrink  from  encountering  in  debate  upon  these  subjects  the  oldest  and 
most  experienced  members  of  the  House.  By  apt  citation  of  prece 
dent  or  authority  in  support  of  his  views,  he  at  once  took  rank  as  an 
able  debater  and  diligent  student  of  constitutional  law. 

A  strict  constructionist  in  interpreting  the  grants  of  Federal  power, 
he  sharply  criticised  and  earnestly  opposed  the  policy  and  measures 
then  adopted  as  the  basis  of  reconstruction  in  the  seceding  States. 


4  K 


26  ADDRESS  OF  MR.  BURCHARD  ON  THE 

We  are  perhaps  too  near  and  many  of  us  have  been  too  prominent 
actors  to  be  able  to  pass  unbiased  judgment  upon  the  results  achieved 
or  failures  that  may  have  ensued.  If  fears  have  not  been  realized, 
and  evils  predicted  and  objections  urged  have  proved  illusory,  we 
cannot  say  that  an  opposition  which  secures  more  deliberate  consid 
eration  and  seeks  to  point  out  supposed  defects  and  injurious  con 
sequences  is  profitless. 

My  personal  acquaintance  with  Mr.  KERR  commenced  in  the 
Forty-first  Congress,  and  by  assignment  to  the  same  committee-duty 
in  the  Forty-second  Congress  our  personal  association  became  fre 
quent  and  intimate.  In  the  daily  discussions  of  great  public  inter 
ests  and  economic  questions,  for  months  under  consideration  in  that 
Congress,  no  one  who  heard  Mr.  KERR  in  committee  or  on  the  floor 
will  deny  him  honesty  of  purpose,  fearlessness  in  the  avowal  of  his 
convictions,  and  ability  in  presenting  and  explaining  his  conclusions. 
He  rose  above  personal  considerations.  Friendship  could  not  allure 
him  to  support  a  measure  he  disapproved.  He  despised  all  shams 
and  pretenses.  He  was  a  stranger  to  deceit.  He  gave  no  comfort 
ing  assurances  to  a  claimant  with  a  hopeless  case.  Special  legisla 
tion  was  his  aversion.  He  hated  monopolies  and  congressional 
favoritism.  His  bold  and  manly  course  in  avowing  and  advocating 
a  financial  policy  at  variance  with  the  supposed  current  of  popular 
opinion  in  his  own  State  challenged  the  admiration  and  won  the 
respect  of  even  political  opponents,  as  well  as  the  thoughtful  men  of 
the  country.  It  doubtless  made  him  Speaker  of  this  House.  In 
that  high  position  he  did  not  disappoint  the  expectations  of  friends 
or  the  country. 

In  his  rulings  and  decisions  all  acknowledged  that  he  aimed  to  be, 
as  a  worthy  Speaker  should,  impartial,  just,  fair,  and  absolutely  right. 
He  presided  with  dignity,  observing  as  well  as  exacting  the  courtesy 
due  to  members  and  to  the  Chair. 

Such  was  the  record  and  impression  made  by  the  late  Speaker  ere 


LIFE   AND   CHARACTER    OF   MICHAEL   C.    KERR.  27 

declining  strength  compelled  him  to  designate  other  occupants,  and 
finally  leave  the  chair  in  order  to  seek  restoration  of  failing  health 
away  from  the  exciting  scenes  of  congressional  life. 

The  hopes  and  prayers  of  a  devoted  wife  and  loving  son,  the  min 
istrations  of  watchful  friends,  were  vain  and  futile.  Amid  the  then 
incipient  excitement  and  rising  storm  of  political  discussion  and  par 
tisan  passion  incident  to  a  presidential  campaign,  his  peaceful  spirit 
deserted  its  earthly  tenement  and  was  wafted  to  its  eternal  rest. 

Thus  the  all-conqueror,  again  exulting,  reminds  us  of  his  resistless 
power.  The  law-maker  is  not  beyond  his  mandate.  The  mighty 
and  the  lowly  are  alike  subject  to  his  will.  But  death  triumphs  only 
over  man's  mortal  frame.  Its  material  elements  dissolve  and  com 
mingle  with  their  mother  earth.  Dust  returns  to  dust.  But  this  is 
the  limit  to  death's  power. 

The  man,  his  character  and  achievements  still  survive  in  memory, 
in  influence,  and  far-reaching  results. 

Great  deeds,  grand,  heroic  words,  and  thoughts  beautiful  or  sublime 
strike  responsive  chords  and  are  re-echoed  and  reproduced  in  other 
sympathetic  souls.  They  live  and  inspire,  mold,  guide,  and  sway 
present  and  future  generations. 

The  manly  form  of  MICHAEL  C.  KERR  will  never  again  enter  this 
Hall.  He  rests  from  his  labors  and  conflicts.  Triumphs  and  honors 
cannot  allure  him  to  earthly  scenes. 

His  mortal  remains  are  moldering  in  the  dust,  but  his  lofty  char 
acter,  his  example,  and  influence  will  live  and  remind  us  that  manly 
sincerity,  integrity,  and  honesty  of  purpose  ennoble  and  exalt  the  pos 
sessor  more  than  high  position  and  earthly  honors. 


ADDRESS    OF    ^MR.    POX,    OF    J^EW    YORK. 

Mr.  SPEAKER:  The  Representatives  of  thirty-seven  independent 
States  this  day  pause  in  their  deliberations  for  the  welfare  of  forty- 


28  ADDRESS    OF    MR.    COX    ON    THE 

five  millions  of  people  to  offer  to  the  memory  of  a  great  and  good 
man  the  solemn  anguish  of  a  nation  for  its  loss,  and  their  sympathy 
with  a  family  and  constituency  in  their  bereavement. 

The  lapse  of  time  which  heals  up  the  green  and  bleeding  wounds 
of  sorrow,  and  which  makes  too  often  ceremonies  like  this  the  mere 
mockery  of  woe,  has  had  no  balm  save  that  which  preserves  the  rec 
ollection  of  our  friend,  no  dew  of  refreshing  save  the  sweet  dew  of 
his  memory. 

It  is  eminently  fitting  that  this  House  should  place  upon  the  tomb 
of  its  late  presiding  officer,  and  the  third  officer  of  the  Government,  a 
civic  crown ! 

The  catalogue  of  American  representatives  is  a  catalogue  of  mor 
tality.  Our  political  system  has  in  it  much  of  popular  caprice,  and 
more  of  providential  vicissitude.  Of  those  that  were  here  when  I 
first  entered  this  Hall  but  four  or  five  remain.  As  I  look  about  this 
Hall  I  perceive  one  and  only  one  of  my  Ohio  colleagues  [Mr.  W.  S. 
GROESBECK]  who  was  a  member  of  the  Thirty-fifth  Congress ;  and 
he  will  share  my  thought  and  feeling.  The  first  death  which  we  were 
called  upon  to  mourn  was  that  of  a  beloved  southern  statesman  and 
soldier,  John  A.  Quitman.  Subsequently  and  how  frequently  have 
others  fallen ! 

I  feel  almost  isolated,  standing  between  the  many  dead,  who  were 
friends,  and  the  living  who  in  a  few  years  will  be  numbered  with  the 
dead ;  but  in  all  these  chances  and  changes  of  time  it  has  been  my 
lot  to  cheer  and  not  to  sadden.  In  the  home  and  among  kindred  for 
two  generations  it  was  not  for  me  to  weep,  but  to  dry  the  tear  of 
others.  When  the  great  moan  went  up  that  Douglas  was  indeed 
dead,  and  in  that  solemn  hour  for  the  country  I  came  forth  to  the 
stricken  men  who  surrounded  my  Ohio  home  to  hear  the  last  tele 
graph — not  to  mourn  but  to  comfort  them  with  hope.  In  the  dark 
hour  when  the  country  was  filled  with  battle-cries  and  blood,  I  lifted 
on  high  not  the  wail  of  Jeremiah,  but  the  joy  of  Isaiah,  in  the  hope 


LIFE   AND   CHARACTER   OF    MICHAEL   C.    KERR.  29 

that  soon  the  waste  places  would  be  built  up  and  the  old  leaf  and 
bloom  return  with  the  spring.  I  tried  to  bring  good  tidings,  to  bind 
up  the  broken-hearted;  and  to  them  that  mourn  in  Zion,  to  give  unto 
them  beauty  for  ashes,  the  oil  of  joy  for  mourning,  and  the  garment 
of  praise  for  the  spirit  of  heaviness. 

On  another  and  recent  occasion,  and  as  the  shadows  gathered  over 
the  Rockbridge  Mountains,  it  was  my  place  to  give  what  of  comfort 
I  could,  by  fringing  the  cloud  with  golden  hope  to  the  stricken.  But 
on  this  occasion  it  is  my  privilege  and  my  infinite  relief  to  mourn  as 
one  who  has  not  merely  lost  a  friend,  but  as  a  citizen  who  has  lost  a 
compatriot,  and,  as  a  Representative,  to  deplore  a  brother  who  in  this 
dire  trial  of  our  institutions  is  not  with  us  to  guide. 

It  may  not  be  out  of  place  here  to  say  that,  in  spite  of  marked 
contrasts  of  character,  I  shared  with  Mr.  KERR  many  of  the  burdens, 
studies,  and  sympathies  of  life.  It  was  a  sad  pleasure  to  stand  with  him 
at  the  last,  on  the  shore  of  that  vast  ocean  which  he  knew  that  he  must 
sail  so  soon.  Racked  with  more  than  mortal  anguish  in  his  last  sick 
ness  ;  harassed  with  a  false  accusation  which  touched  the  very  heart 
and  marrow  of  his  character ;  his  body  shrinking  and  shrinking  to 
the  very  imagery  of  death  the  skeleton ;  yet  his  spirit  was  as  calm 
as  a  still,  sweet  morning,  as  it  rises  above  yonder  azure  mountains 
where  he  died,  and  his  will  as  firm  as  their  rocky  base.  Unappalled 
by  the  terrors  of  the  unknown  world,  he  passed  away  out  of  the  beau 
tiful  valley  where  he  sojourned  into  the  valley  of  the  shadow.  Naught 
remained  but  the  mere  phantom  of  a  body.  This  was  borne  to  his 
home  in  Indiana.  The  theme  over  his  remains  was  well  chosen :  "A 
good  name  is  rather  to  be  chosen  than  great  riches,  and  loving  favor 
rather  than  silver  and  gold."  Until  the  last  flower  faded  from  the 
earth  around  his  home,  loving  crowds  thronged  to  the  cemetery,  and 
every  Sabbath  his  friends  and  constituents  made  their  pilgrimages  to 
lay,  with  their  sympathy,  immortelles  upon  his  grave. 

He  died  at  the  Alum  Springs,  West  Virginia.    It  is  an  old  resort,  an 


30  ADDRESS   OF   MR.    COX   ON   THE 

intervale  of  beauty,  a  charming  little  park  sweetly  embosomed  in  the 
Blue  Ridge ;  a  lonely  spot,  with  now  and  then  a  habitation,  but  with 
a  bracing  air,  a  splendid  forest,  and  grand  mountains.  There  is  a  pri 
meval  quietude  there,  almost  a  summer-afternoon  feeling,  as  if  the  lotus- 
eaters  of  Tennyson  had  made  it  a  resort  aloof  from  the  cries  of  people 
that  do  come  and  go.  The  only  noise  is  that  of  murmuring  waters.  It 
was  amid  these  solemn  silences  that  his  last  weeks  and  hours  were 
passed.  It  was  amid  those  remote  and  pleasant  nooks  of  nature  that 
God  unloosed  his  weary  star.  His  was  no  sudden  call.  All  prep 
arations,  secular  and  spiritual,  possible  were  made  by  his  own  direc 
tion.  The  silver  cord  was  not  cut  hurriedly,  nor  the  golden  bowl 
broken  in  an  instant.  No  holocaust  of  fire  snapped  his  life's  cord 
suddenly.  The  cord  was  gently  untied;  the  golden  bowl  melted 
away  as  if  it  were  a  scarf  of  vapory  amethyst,  or  rather  as  the  light 
fades  away  from  the  firmament  at  the  coming  on  of  evening  mild. 
Just  as  the  sun  went  down,  his  spirit  peacefully  departed.  The  pearl 
dropped  from  its  wasted  shell  as  the  sun  passed  behind  the  mountain. 
There  he  lay  in  the  lap  of  a  lovelier  nature,  by  stiller  streams  and 
fairer  meadows  than  we  are  wont  to  fancy  in  some  blest  Arcady ;  but 
when  death  came  it  seemed  to  make  the  beauty  of  the  mountains  seem 
as  barren  as  the  desert ;  the  flowers  and  leafage  and  rocks  and  hills 
lost  their  charm,  the  breeze  its  freshness,  the  song  of  birds  its  music, 
and  the  sweet  shine  of  the  sun  was  all  joyless. 

But  in  the  mountains  did  he  feel  his  faith. 
All  things  responsive  to  the  writing  there 
Breathed  immortality,  revolving  life, 
And  greatness  still  revolving — infinite. 
There  littleness  was  not ;  the  least  of  things 
Seemed  infinite. 

What  was  that  faith  ?  I  could  not  speak  truly  and  say  it  was  the 
accepted  dogmas  of  any  church.  He  could  no  more  be  a  mystygogue 
than  a  demagogue.  If  he  could  not  accept  all  that  was  written  about 


LIFE   AND    CHARACTER   OF   MICHAEL   C.    KERR.  31 

the  Savior,  he  fully  sanctioned  and  truly  lived  up  to  the  code  of 
morals  which  Christ  gave.  He  believed  an  honest  man  to  be  the  best 
Christian.  His  plan  of  life  was  to  get  all  the  knowledge  he  could, 
and  use  it  in  doing  all  the  good  he  could. 

Though  his  life  may  have  seemed  to  some  reserved,  yet  his  aus 
terity  was  but  the  visor  which  concealed  generosity,  tenderness,  and 
trustfulness.  He  sympathized  with  all  men,  and  only  repelled  those 
who  were  exacting  and  dishonest.  His  faith  was  in  honest  work ;  it 
was  this  that  made  his  home  a  sacred  spot,  refined  and  beautiful,  enno 
bled  by  delightful  intimacies  and  old-fashioned  hospitality.  It  is  not 
a  new  standard  by  which  he  regulated  his  life.  Laborare  est  orare  is 
as  old  as  the  fathers  of  the  church.  That  he  made  integrity  his  re 
ligion,  work  his  orison,  and  truth  his  idolatry,  is  only  repeating  the 
written  words  of  the  wise  and  good  of  all  ages.  He  wrought 

With  human  hands,  the  creed  of  creeds 
In  loveliness  of  perfect  deeds. 

To  be  kind  to  the  widow  and  fatherless  was  one  of  his  canons ;  and 
this  man  never  in  his  profession  would  receive  a  reward  for  serving 
them !  To  be  faithful  to  his  public  trust ;  and  this  man  no  more 
flinched  from  uttering  unpopular  than  worthy  thoughts.  Pericles 
in  his  last  illness  said :  "  No  Athenian  in  consequence  of  any  action 
of  mine  had  ever  put  on  mourning."  Mr.  KERR  could  truthfully  say 
the  same  in  a  better  sense. 

When  I  went  at  his  request  to  Virginia  and  to  his  bedside,  and  after 
delivering  the  messages  from  his  friends  here,  I  asked  him  if  he  were 
ready  to  meet  the  unseen  world ;  with  a  glance  of  gentleness,  and  a 
pressure  of  my  hand,  he  declared  that  he  was  ready.  We  talked  of  the 
mysterious  realm.  His  faith  was  abiding  that  in  that  future  there 
was  reward  for  a  just  life  here.  As  he  said,  half  playfully,  he  stood 
upon  his  record. 

It  was  this  pious  probity  which  he  impressed  upon  his  people,  upon 
Congress,  upon  his  own  life,  and  upon  his  son.  It  had  its  source  in  the 


32  ADDRESS    OF    MR.    COX   ON    THE 

heart  as  well  as  the  head.  This  is  especially  observable  in  the  care 
which  he  gave  to  his  son's  tuition,  even  to  the  last  hours  of  his  life. 
He  seldom  left  his  house  on  his  return  from  his  office.  As  has  been 
so  well  said  by  his  colleague,  [Mr.  HAMILTON,]  who  offered  these  reso 
lutions,  he  scarcely  mingled  with  the  masses  of  the  people,  even  his 
own  constituents,  but  with  kind  cheerfulness  was  wont  to  retire  to  his 
home  and  library.  There  he  studied  his  favorite  authors,  examined 
his  son  in  the  studies  of  the  day,  and  filled  up  each  hour  with  some 
useful  thought  or  exercise.  The  speech  of  Flato  to  the  Athenians  he 
expressed  in  his  life  :  "  For  the  glory  of  parents  is  an  excellent  and  an 
honorable  treasure  to  their  children,  making  up  for  the  lack  of  pos 
sessions  and  dignities."  "  Dos  est  magna  parentium  virtus"  (Hor.  Od., 
xxiv,  lib.  3.)  May  I  not  read  from  the  Chicago  Times  the  record  of 
his  last  advice  to  his  son  to  illustrate  the  paternal  care  and  gentle 
worth  of  this  our  best  representative  man  ? 

A  few  days  before  his  death,  Mr.  KERR  had  a  conversation  with  his  son,  in  the 
course  of  which  he  said:  "  I  have  nothing  to  leave  you,  my  son,  except  my  good 
name.  Guard  it  and  your  mother's  honor,  and  live  as  I  have  lived."  He  further 
said :  "  Pay  all  my  debts,  if  my  estate  will  warrant  it  without  leaving  your  mother 
penniless.  Otherwise  pay  what  you  can,  and  then  go  to  my  creditors  and  tell  them 
the  truth,  and  pledge  your  honor  to  wipe  out  the  indebtedness." 

The  source  of  this  man's  power  was  not  altogether  intellectual;  it 
was  in  the  affections.  What  a  void  has  been  made  in  his  western  home ! 

Who  can  tell  the  anguish  of  the  bereaved !  Even  the  delights  of 
the  old  home  in  the  West  intensified  it.  "  She  was  at  home,"  writes 
the  bereaved  son  of  the  widowed  mother,  "among  friends;  but  she 
could  not  feel  at  home,  for  he  was  not  there.  Everything  suggested 
father  to  her.  Something  would  requicken  her  sorrow.  The  finding 
of  an  old  letter,  the  half-read  book  with  the  mark  of  leaving  off,  and 
all  those  thousand  ever-recurring,  inconsiderable  reminders  that  keep 
the  heart  of  sorrow  painfully  darkened  by  the  shadow  of  him  who  has 
gone ;  these  things  lengthened  out  and  intensified  the  grief  till  the 


LIFE    AND    CHARACTER    OF    MICHAEL    C.    KERR  33 

burden  became  too  hard  to  bear."  For  such  human  agony  there  is 
no  compensation  in  the  honors  and  preferments  of  our  life.  The  cur 
rent  of  domestic  bliss  which  once  flowed  so  calmly,  reflecting  the  very 
heavens  on  its  mirrored  bosom,  when  thus  overshadowed — where  is 
the  adequate  return  in  the  plaudits  and  honors  of  men  ?  To  wait 
and  wish,  and  to  hear  no  step,  no  voice  of  husband  and  father ;  the 
olden  aid,  which  directed,  supported,  and  comforted,  gone ;  gone ; 
no  advent  to  glorify  the  gloom — this  is  to  the  overworn  and  wearied 
watcher  what  mere  mechanism  of  tongue  or  pen  cannot  express. 
Expression  only  benumbs  the  soul  of  such  griefs  as  these.  Our  tears 
freeze  at  the  fountain,  our  sympathies  die  in  the  attempt  to  express 
them. 

History  and  oratory  have  been  spent  in  haranguing  about  the  heroes 
of  war.  Military  genius  and  renown  have  been  themes  of  encomium 
to  quicken  patriotism  and  endear  private  virtues.  In  the  funeral  ora 
tions  over  the  dead  Greeks  who  fell  in  fight,  Mars  alone  received 
apotheosis.  We  have  orations  by  Pericles,  Lysias,  and  Plato  pre 
served  in  the  crystal  beauty  of  Thucydides.  All  the  muses  and 
graces  do  obeisance  to  the  solemn  rapture  of  the  eloquent  hour  when 
in  graceful  periods  and  imperishable  language  the  orator  came  forth 
from  the  monument,  ascended  the  tribunal,  and,  with  panegyric  be 
yond  the  reach  of  modern  art,  displayed  the  virtues  of  the  dead.  But 
these  eulogies  were  in  praise  only  of  martial  glory.  Only  once  do  I 
recall  the  words  of  an  inspired  Greek,  forgetting  for  a  moment  the 
custom  of  the  time,  admonishing  the  people  "that  the  whole  earth 
was  the  sepulcher  of  renowned  men,"  whether  renowned  for  honor 
able  exertion  in  war  or  peace.  It  is  the  old  vaunting  story  of  the 
Bible  even :  "  Saul  has  slain  his  thousands,  but  David  his  tens  of 
thousands."  The  helmet,  the  plume,  the  spear,  the  sword,  the  onset — 
these  are  the  themes  of  classic  funeral  eloquence.  Men  are  prone 
to  forget  what  has  been  done  by  the  gifted  and  great  whose  asso 
ciations  were  those  of  art,  literature,  benevolence,  and  science.  We 


5  K 


34  ADDRESS    OF    MR.    COX    ON    THE 

seldom  remember  long  those  whose  lives  were  rounded  with  the 
humility  of  good  deeds  and  gentle  affections.  Men  rear  monuments 
and  arches  to  the  captains  of  armies,  rarely  to  the  leaders  of  opinion. 
Few  mounds  of  green  turf  remain  to  recall  the  great  thoughts  which 
lived  in  the  heroic  lives  of  such  men  as  Plato,  Newton,  Saint  Xavier, 
Howard,  or  Cobden.  Monuments  to  military  men  overshadow  these 
little  hillocks  on  whose  breast  tears  fall  and  over  whose  dust  blossoms 
cluster.  Rome  has  her  arch  to  Titus,  her  column  of  Trajan.  The 
grave  of  Agamemnon  has  been  found  and  glorified  by  a  German 
scholar ;  and  the  exhumed  Atridas  are  more  honored  by  emperors  and 
kings  than  the  blind  bard  who  sung  their  praises  along  the  Agean. 
But,  thanks  to  a  better  civilization,  even  the  successful  general  to 
day  must  have  something  more  than  the  brute  instinct  which  led 
Pelissier  to  smoke  the  Kabyles  in  their  caves.  He  must  have  more 
than  the  engineering  skill  of  Todleben  and  Von  Moltke.  He  must 
have  that  knowledge  of  human  nature  by  which  to  rule  men,  not 
merely  in  the  ranks,  but  in  the  senate,  in  the  forum,  and  among  the 
masses.  He  must  be,  as  was  said  of  Wellington,  something  more 
than  a  commissary  or  clerk.  He  must  minister  to  peaceful  states ;  he 
must  think  like  lightning,  and  strike  with  its  vehemence  and  fatality 
for  tranquil  homes  and  human  happiness  in  great  crises  ;  he  must 
have  the  gentle  amenities  of  culture  along  with  the  heart  of  the  hero. 
Above  all,  he  must  have  inwoven  like  threads  of  light  the  patriotic 
devotion  which  sees  in  his  country's  flag  a  symbol  of  order  and  unity 
and  in  his  country's  civil  glory  his  highest  hope  and  inspiration.  The 
legends  and  songs,  flags  and  heraldry,  with,  their  beasts  and  boast 
ings,  show  through  all  time  that  prowess  in  the  encounter  of  body 
with  body  is  the  barbaric  yet  universal  code  of  honor.  But  when  the 
sword  of  patriotism  is  jeweled  in  the  hilt  with  civil  virtues,  then  a 
Washington  rescues  the  mere  wager  by  battle  from  its  irrational  fame, 
and  gives  added  glory  to  the  gem  and  new  splendors  to  the  magiste 
rial  sword ! 


LIFE    AND    CHARACTER    OF    MICHAEL    C.    KERR.  35 

May  something,  sir,  be  pardoned  to  the  spirit  of  eulogy,  when  I 
say  that  these  elements  of  true  grandeur  found  a  rare  combination  in 
MICHAEL  C.  KERR. 

Patient  in  study,  gentle  yet  firm  in  his  feelings  and  determinations, 
inspired  with  the  courage  of  true  patriotism,  defying,  as  he  did,  the 
mob  with  the  same  energy  with  which  he  analyzed  a  tariff  or  de 
nounced  an  exacting  monopoly — arranging,  classifying,  assimilating 
details  for  practical  service,  making  his  conscience  his  religion — he 
stands,  more  than  most  of  the  men  who  have  taken  part  in  our  coun 
cils  since  the  war,  as  an  exemplar  of  intelligent  and  fearless,  pure 
and  gentle  patriotic  duty.  Yet  he  was  not  all  judgment,  else  he 
would  not  have  been  a  patriot;  he  was  not  all  passion,  else  he  would 
not  have  been  a  statesman.  In  debate,  as  in  private  talk,  he  had  at 
times  great  vehemence  of  manner  and  great  intrepidity  in  action. 
He  did  not  toss  his  thoughts  about  easily;  he  was  at  times  timid  in 
their  utterance  till  thoroughly  assured  by  patiently  marshaling  them, 
and  then  he  was  eloquent.  Spurning  traditions  and  legends,  believ 
ing  in  no  law  not  revocable ;  not  anxious  to  force  men  to  do  what 
he  thought  was  best  for  them;  with  a  noble  rage  at  wrong  and  a  dis 
gust  of  parasites,  he  would  add  no  largess  to  bad  gains  and  greeds. 
What  were  the  meshes  of  old  custom  to  his  fresh,  inquiring  mind  ? 
While  he  never  turned  away  from  a  new  truth,  while  he  had  no  re 
spect  for  mere  antiquity,  while  he  would  clear  away  the  lush  growth 
over  our  select  shrines  of  duty,  he  revered  the  ancient  ways  of  the 
Constitution  and  all  its  muniments  with  the  ardor  of  a  neophyte 
Sensitive  to  every  point  of  honor,  he  was  not  less  careful  of  his  own 
fame  when  assailed  by  perjury  than  of  the  financial  and  patriotic 
honor  of  his  country. 

But,  sir,  while  the  contemplation  of  his  character  is  no  compensa 
tion  for  his  loss,  it  is  not  less  instructive  than  proper  for  us  to  know 
the  sources  of  that  magic  which  won  the  support  of  his  constituency 
and  the  preferments  of  this  Congress.  The  secret  of  this  talismanic 


36  ADDRESS    OF    MR.    COX   ON    THE 

power  lay  in  the  discipline  of  his  mind.  He  was  an  example,  by  no 
means  uncommon  in  this  country,  of  one  who  was  strengthened  by 
wrestling  with  adversity.  The  first  half  of  his  life  was  a  struggle  with 
poverty,  the  last  with  disease.  Rising  above  the  trammels  of  early 
life,  he  thought  more  of  brain  than  of  brawn.  Desiring  a  larger 
range  of  usefulness  and  ambitious  of  thorough  education,  he  strug 
gled  out  of  difficulty  into  a  profession  where  his  naturally  keen  ana 
lytic  mind  had  full  play.  He  was  not  only  a  good  lawyer  and  advo 
cate,  but  his  mind  had  a  judicial  cast,  which  he  would  no  doubt  have 
illustrated  in  the  chair  had  he  lived,  and  for  which  rare  trait  he  was 
selected  as  the  reporter  to  the  supreme  court  of  Indiana.  He  be 
lieved  in  settled  principles  of  authority,  binding  as  firmly  as  the  pagan 
gods  were  bound  by  the  decree  of  fate.  But  while  he  loved  law,  he 
loved  liberty.  As  a  Massachusetts  scholar  has  said,  "  He  loved  them 
together,"  and  because,  like  the  nitrogen  and  oxygen  of  the  atmo 
sphere,  they  give  vitality  when  combined  in  proper  proportions. 

To  my  mind  he  does  not  rate  so  highly  as  the  lawyer,  only  because 
he  was  more  of  the  scholar  and  the  statesman.  His  pre-eminence 
in  the  last  character  came  from  his  constant  preparation  in  the  first. 
Every  speech  of  his  was  a  study,  a  treatise.  When  he  spoke  on 
matters  connected  with  the  laws  of  wealth,  trade,  and  currency,  his 
lucid  and  cogent  style  was  not  more  remarkable  than  his  abundant 
information. 

How  was  this  preparation  made?  He  seldom  read  works  of  fic 
tion  or  frivolity.  The  weightier  and  more  solid  authors  were  to  his 
taste  and  preference.  He  never  read  but  one  or  two  novels,  and 
those  in  the  last  of  his  life.  George  Eliot's  Adam  Bede  attracted  him 
because  it  endeavored  to  solve  problems  of  social  science.  He  sel 
dom  read  poetry,  save  Homer's  Iliad  and  Milton;  though  Shakes 
peare  was  always  near  him,  and  the  Bible  frequently  consulted.  In 
this  respect  he  was  not  unlike  Tristem  Burgess,  the  orator,  of  Rhode 
Island.  He  never  intertangled  the  roses  of  poetry  with  the  bearded 


LIFE   AND   CHARACTER   OF    MICHAEL    C.    KERR.  37 

grain  of  his  philosophy.  Still  he  was  a  great  reader  of  books.  His 
first  act  when  he  came  to  his  home  from  the  office  was  to  take  up  an 
unfinished  book.  He  left  a  library  of  twenty-five  hundred  volumes, 
each  bought  one  by  one,  read,  marked,  and  digested.  His  library  is 
full  of  standard  works  on  political  economy,  to  which  he  always  added 
more,  almost  until  the  day  of  his  death. 

For  a  man  apparently  so  uncongenial  and  cold,  the  liberalities  of 
his  culture,  taste,  and  logic  are  remarkable.  He  excluded  no  volume, 
however  heterodox  or  orthodox,  from  his  library  or  his  mind.  Jeffer 
son  was  his  ideal  of  a  statesman  and  Webster  of  an  orator.  Pic 
tures  of  both  hang  in  his  library.  His  scrap-book  was  kept  for  the 
"best  thoughts"  of  the  fathers,  as  he  called  them.  No  ethical  or 
partisan  bias  controlled  his  reason.  You  will  see  in  his  library  Re- 
nan's  Life  of  Jesus  huddling  close  to  McCosh's  Evidences  of  Chris 
tianity;  Tyndall  shakes  hands  with  Paley;  Draper's  Religion  and 
Science  stands  by  Buckle's  History  of  Civilization ;  Barnes's  Notes 
keep  company  with  Tom  Paine ;  Jefferson  and  Madison  are  almost 
imbound  with  Hamilton  and  Jay;  Henry  C.  Carey  lies  between  Way- 
land  and  John  Stuart  Mill  to  bridge  the  abyss  between  free  trade  and 
protection.  Friends  and  enemies  were  alike  welcome  to  his  mind, 
and  he  tested  them  all  in  the  crucible  of  his  reason. 

Out  of  this  abundant  reading  he  was  enabled,  by  his  method,  his 
regularity  and  discipline,  to  evoke  general  thoughts  for  practical  life. 
By  his  masculine  understanding,  steady  perseverance,  and  unwearied 
resolution  he  rose  above  illness,  professional  avocations,  and  the  local 
demands  of  his  constituency  to  a  higher  plane  than  most  statesmen. 
This  element  of  persistency  belonged  to  his  natural  traits  of  character. 
It  was  illustrated  during  his  life.  It  was  illustrated  in  the  chair,  in 
the  struggle  with  disease,  to  fill  his  duty.  It  was  illustrated  in  the 
last  hours  of  his  tenacious  life,  for  his  reason  remained  unimpaired  to 
the  end. 

I  have  said  that  his  reason  and  conscience  were  his  religion.     It 


38  ADDRESS   OF    MR.    COX  ON  THE 

was  his  habit  to  submit  everything  to  this  test.  He  squared  his  life 
with  scrupulous  reason.  No  temporal  interest  of  his  own  or  that  of 
his  family  swerved  him  from  following  this  guiding  element  of  his 
character. 

He  was  a  scholar ;  he  was  a  disciple  of  the  positive  philosophy, 
devoted  to  the  tenets  of  Herbert  Spencer,  John  Stuart  Mill,  Compte, 
and  Buckle.  His  political  science  was  drawn,  as  most  political  sci 
ence  is,  from  those  of  similar  philosophic  inclinations.  Jeremy  Ben- 
tham  was  his  teacher,  consciously  or  unconsciously.  His  ideas  were 
not  transcendental,  but  utilitarian.  The  bent  of  his  mind  was  in 
creased  by  his  studies  in  this  school  of  philosophy,  but  there  was  no 
unreasoning  skepticism  in  his  character. 

Despite  his  unwillingness  to  believe  in  anything  miraculous  or  im 
probable,  his  heart  was  reverential  before  the  great  Omniscience. 
With  him  reason. was  the  first  born,  and,  though  twin  with  faith,  both 
inherited  the  blessing.  If  he  had  any  bias  in  his  mind  it  was  toward 
reason,  though  his  faith  walked  timidly  hand  in  hand  with  it.  It  is 
said  that  the  sun  is  reason,  while  faith  is  the  lesser  orb  that  shines  by 
night.  MICHAEL  C.  KERR  made  the  great  light  to  rule  his  busy  day. 
How  far  the  lesser  ruled  in  the  contemplations  of  the  night  only  God 
knows.  If  faith  shines  only  so  long  as  she  reflects  some  faint  illumi 
nation  from  the  brighter  orb,  what  casuistry  shall  discard  this  man's 
religious  nature  from  the  shrine  of  a  true  religion  ? 

It  is  not  necessary  to  r.enew  the  scenes  of  his  death-bed  here  and 
now.  Only  this  may  be  said,  from  competent  medical  authority,  that 
rarely  has  one  of  our  race  been  gifted  with  such  a  tenacity  of  life. 
He  lived  after  his  pulse  ceased  to  beat.  This  fact  may  serve  some 
what  to  account  for  the  positiveness  of  his  purposes  in  life  and  the 
positive  philosophy  to  which  his  intellect  inclined. 

He  was  a  democrat  on  principles  fixed  by  his  studies  and  philos 
ophy,  I  was  about  to  say,  by  his  religion.  Yet  (as  has  been  truly 
said)  he  was  averse  to  the  rough  encounters  of  the  hustings.  It  was 


LIFE    AND    CHARACTER    OF    MICHAEL    C.    KERR.  39 

difficult  to  induce  him  to  speak  outside  of  his  neighborhood.  Once 
in  New  York  he  promised  to  talk  for  five  minutes  to  my  friends,  but 
when  on  his  feet,  and  with  an  audience  sympathizing  with  his  free- 
trade  ideas,  he  held  the  audience  for  two  hours  in  one  great  plea  for 
his  favorite  liberalities  of  commerce  and  against  the  mercenary  in 
equalities  of  protection.  These  were  his  favorite  themes  to  illustrate 
his  general  political  ideas.  They  were  to  him  an  enthusiastic  senti 
ment — his  principle  of  action.  He  traveled  abroad  to  study  them. 
He  came  to  Congress  to  give  them  vigor  and  effect. 

He  was  averse  to  the  crowd.  When  writing  to  him  about  my  pro 
tempore  visit  to  the  great  exposition,  he  expressed  his  regret  that  he 
did  not  see  the  grand  engine  and  its  wonderful  ramifications  of  har 
nessed  forces ;  but  at  the  same  time  he  said  that  he  shrank  from  such 
throngs  like  the  sensitive  plant  before  the  human  touch.  Yet  his 
political  thoughts  were  ever  "broad,  based  upon  the  people's  will." 
His  dissection  of  the  questions  growing  out  of  reconstruction  and 
the  southern  ballot,  which  had  been  to  him  a  special  study,  shows  the 
ultimate  scorn  of  a  mind  utterly  hating  fraud  and  the  lofty  patriot 
who  reverenced  all  sections  and  respected  all  rights.  It  is  said  that 
the  spectroscope  reveals  that  there  is  a  star  which  burns  gold  for  its 
illumination.  By  a  wonderful  coincidence  it  is  the  distant  star  Alde- 
baran,  far  off  in  the  group  of  Hyades,  which  the  Rosicrucians,  who 
sought  to  transmute  all  metals  into  gold,  worshiped.  That  star  was 
their  fateful  genius  for  inspiration  and  alchemy.  Not  less  precious 
to  him  than  if  it  were  a  star  of  gold  was  each  State,  distinct  in  indi 
viduality  and  like  to  each  other  in  a  common  right,  interest,  and  des 
tiny,  whether  shining  near  or  afar ! 

O,  that  God  would  raise  up  for  our  instruction  and  guidance  other 
men  of  the  same  exalted  type  of  American  manhood — men  as  just, 
other  haters  of  corruption  as  earnest,  other  tribunes  of  the  people  as 
peerless  and  fearless,  and  other  statesmen  as  lofty  and  pure  in  patri 
otic  devotion !  When,  sir,  I  perceive  the  emblem  of  mourning  over 


40  ADDRESS    OF    MR.    COX   ON   THE 

the  seat  he  so  lately  occupied,  shrouding  our  ensign,  the  omen  is 
sadly  portentous  and  painfully  suggestive.  Were  he  with  us  in  this 
hour  of  our  solicitude,  I  know,  sir,  that  he  would  not  fail  with  cour 
ageous  counsel.  He  would  revive  the  heroism  of  that  parliamentary 
band,  before  which  royal  prerogatives  cowered,  when  before  the  priv 
ilege  of  the  Commons  and  its  stanch  Speakers  the  bills  of  right  of 
a  free  people  were  made  paramount  to  the  thunders  of  the  throne  ! 

His  fame  was  not  quenched  by  death — only  his  opportunity.  It 
was  said  by  Theodore  Parker  of  Samuel  Adams  that  he  was  not  in  one 
sense  a  Christian  man,  but  one  of  Plutarch's  men.  So  was  MICHAEL 
C.  KERR.  His  human  worth  can  only  be  reckoned  by  the  gravity 
of  his  loss  to  us  in  this  perilous  and  anxious  trial  for  the  stability 
and  genius  of  the  Government.  If  liberty  through  his  death  has  lost 
from  this  hall  of  the  people  one  of  her  purest  devotees;  if  liberty, 
like  Algernon  Sydney,  must  go  to  the  scaffold,  yet  from  the  scaffold 
she  will  ascend  to  another  sphere  where  there  is  a  better  code  of  jus 
tice  and  right;  and  there  in  that  realm,  who  will  give  her  less  stinted 
welcome  than  the  immortal  spirit  of  MICHAEL  C.  KERR! 

Under  such  patriotic  thoughts  as  were  his,  still  surviving  death, 
our  country  may  cease  from  its  passionate  discord.  Then  peace  will 
bind  our  States  as  sheaves  are  bound  in  the  harvesting,  season  after 
season,  till  the  latest  generation.  You,  Mr.  Speaker,  and  ye  who  are 
your  brothers  in  these  exalted  trusts,  ye  who  have  the  keeping  of  this 
bruised  and  broken  land,  can  ye  not  all  rise  under  the  admonition  of 
such  a  life  as  our  late  Speaker  lived  into  a  higher  sense  of  duty  and 
a  more  self-sacrificing  patriotism?  Can  we  not  encompass  our  be 
loved  land  around  with  a  wall  of  fire  that  will  not  burn,  but  guard  ? 
Shall  we  not  do  this  before  its  grave  yawns;  that  grave  where  there 
is  no  work,  nor  knowledge,  nor  device,  nor  wisdom  ?  Thus  faithful 
unto  death  in  our  trusts,  as  he  was,  may  we  not  have  the  promise  of 
a  crown  of  everlasting  life,  which  I  trust  in  God  he  wears  ? 


LIFE    AND    CHARACTER   OF    MICHAEL   C.    KERR.  41 


ADDRESS  OF  yvin.  PLYMER,  OF  PENNSYLVANIA. 

Mr.  SPEAKER:  This  Congress,  from  the  hour  of  its  meeting  in  De 
cember,  1875,  until  the  day  of  its  adjournment  in  August,  1876, 
stood  in  the  shadow  of  an  impending  calamity  !  A  Speaker  was 
elected  who,  by  reason  of  his  long  service,  his  large  experience,  and 
pre-eminent  ability,  was  deemed  worthy  of  the  exalted  station.  He 
brought  to  the  discharge  of  its  duties  a  clear  head,  a  sound  heart,  an 
impartial  judgment,  and  a  resolute  will;  but,  sir,  it  was  painfully  evi 
dent  to  every  one  that  a  mortal  and  fast-consuming  malady  had 
possession  of  him.  In  the  very  hour  of  his  triumph,  when  he  had 
scaled  the  heights  and  reached  the  goal  of  his  ambition ;  when  there 
lay  before  bright  prospects  of  future  usefulness  and  still  higher  honor; 
when  he  had  a  right  to  feel  that  he  was  about  to  enjoy  the  full  fru 
ition  of  a  laborious  and  well-spent  life,  he  was  summoned  to  the  dread 
conflict  with  the  last  enemy,  one  in  which  we  must  all  engage,  and  in 
which  no  mortal  may  triumph.  For  days  and  weeks  and  months  we 
stood  sad  and  helpless  spectators  of  the  fierce  struggle.  We  well 
knew  it  to  be  hopeless,  and  our  sorrow  was  scarcely  lessened  by  our 
admiration  for  the  heroic  courage,  the  sublime  fortitude,  the  dauntless 
spirit  with  which  he  marched  forth  to  meet  and  embrace  death. 

Mr.  Speaker,  it  was  not  my  good  fortune,  as  it  was  yours  and  that 
of  others  who  hear  me,  to  have  served  with  him  in  former  days,  when 
he  stood  upon  this  floor  the  peer  of  any  one  in  intellect  and  ability ; 
and  therefore  I  leave  it  to  those  who  have  personal  knowledge  to 
speak  of  his  merits  and  services  as  a  legislator  and  statesman.  My 
personal  acquaintance  with  him  began  with  the  first  session  of  this 
Congress.  Under  ordinary  circumstances  it  would  necessarily  have 
been  slight,  but  painful  events,  fresh  in  the  recollection  of  all  of  us 


0  K 


42  ADDRESS    OF    MR.    CLYMER    ON    THE 

and  of  the  whole  country,  placed  me  in  such  relations  to  him  as  to 
render  it  almost  a  duty,  as  it  is  a  mournful  satisfaction,  to  put  on  rec 
ord  my  estimate  of  his  character  as  a  man. 

After  years  of  public  service,  here  and  elsewhere,  he  stood  at  the 
threshold  of  the  grave,  comparatively  poor  in  this  world's  goods,  and, 
to  his  great  honor  be  it  spoken,  rich  in  nothing  save  his  good  name, 
his  character  for  spotless  integrity,  his  unblemished  reputation  for 
purity  in  public  and  private  life.  These  were  his  jewels;  these  were 
the  treasures  which  he  had  garnered;  these  he  valued  more  than 
houses  and  lands  or  all  mere  earthly  possessions.  But,  sir,  when  weak 
and  worn  by  disease,  when  even  hope  had  fled,  when  the  dark  shad 
ows  of  death  were  closing  about  him,  a  base  and  cowardly  attempt 
was  made  to  rob  him  of  his  good  name  and  send  him  to  his  grave 
disgraced  and  dishonored.  It  became  my  painful  duty  to  inform  him 
of  the  nature  of  the  charge  preferred  against  him.  He  met  it  with  a 
philosophic  composure  and  stern  defiance  which  told  of  his  conscious 
innocence.  Courting  the  most  searching  investigation,  he  demanded 
to  meet  his  base  accuser  face  to  face.  For  long  and  weary  days  the 
investigation  proceeded.  1  will  not  attempt  to  describe  the  proud 
and  defiant  spirit  with  which  he  met  and  braved  the  terrible  ordeal. 
So  broken  and  disabled  in  body,  those  who  knew  him  best  had  grave 
fears  that  death  would  seal  his  lips  before  he  could  make  reply;  but 
the  very  exigency  seemed  to  rekindle  and  vivify  his  expiring  energies, 
to  endow  him  with  new  and  almost  superhuman  power.  To  him  it 
was  a  struggle  more  grave  and  terrible  than  that  which  he  had  been 
making  for  prolonged  existence  :  it  was  for  untarnished  reputation, 
for  unsullied  honor.  To  the  dying  man  these  were  dearer  and  far 
more  precious  than  mere  existence,  for  without  them  it  would  have 
been  a  curse.  The  hour  of  his  triumphant  vindication  came,  when 
in  this  chamber  each  Representative  of  the  American  people  then 
present  rose  solemnly  in  his  place  and  declared  his  profound  convic 
tion  of  his  purity  and  innocence.  Thus  the  dark  cloud  which  threat- 


LIFE   AND   CHARACTER   OF    MICHAEL   C.    KERR.  43 

ened  to  obscure  the  brightness  of  his  setting  sun  was  rolled  away, 
and  a  blessed  peace,  a  serene  tranquillity  came  to  the  great  heart  of 
the  dying  Speaker. 

I  may  not  lift  the  vail  which  rightfully  separates  his  inner  and 
private  from  his  outer  and  public  life,  but  it  would  be  unjust  to  his 
memory  did  I  fail  to  record  his  lively  sense  of  this  crowning  act  of 
kindness  and  justice  on  the  part  of  those  whose  good  opinion  was  so 
dear  to  him.  To  his  sensitive  and  dying  ear  it  told  of  the  verdict 
which  after  times  would  render.  It  brought  profound  consolation  to 
him,  and  thereafter  he  was  fully  prepared  to  say  "Hinc  dimittis" 

His  was  a  proud,  sensitive,  and  imperious  nature,  even  shrinking 
from  familiarity  with  the  world,  asking  little  of  its  sympathy,  and  car 
ing  less  for  its  applause.  He  chose  to  be  judged  by  his  acts  rather 
than  by  professions.  His  convictions  were  deep  and  decided  upon 
all  questions,  and  he  did  not  hesitate  to  obey  and  follow  them  to  their 
ultimate  and  logical  results.  He  controlled  and  led  his  fellow-men 
by  the  sheer  force  of  his  intellect  rather  than  by  the  influence  of  his 
heart.  He  was  always  a  teacher,  a  leader ;  never  an  imitator  or  servile 
follower.  In  any  era  of  our  history  he  would  have  been  a  character 
of  mark,  his  moral  courage  and  his  mental  powers  alike  fitting  him 
for  the  performance  of  duties  of  gravest  moment.  His  death  would 
have  been  a  great  public  loss  at  any  t'ime ;  in  this  hour  of  doubt,  un 
certainty,  and  danger  it  is  next  to  irreparable,  when  we  consider  the 
character  of  the  man,  the  dignity  and  power  of  his  place,  the  hold 
he  had  upon  the  confidence  of  the  people,  and  the  stern  and  unyield 
ing  fidelity  with  which  he  would  have  dared  to  perform  his  whole  duty. 

To-day,  Indiana  stands  chief  mourner  for  the  son  of  her  adoption, 
MICHAEL  C.  KERR;  close  and  next  by  her  side  stands  Pennsylvania, 
on  whose  soil  he  was  born  and  partly  reared.  She  claims  a  sister's 
sacred  right  to  mourn  the  loss  of  an  honored  child.  My  poor  and 
broken  utterances  but  feebly  express  her  estimate  of  his  worth,  her 
profound  regard  for  his  memory. 


44  ADDRESS    OF    MR.    M*CRARY    ON   THE 


ADDRESS   OF     M.R.     McCRARY,   OF  JoWA. 

Mr.  SPEAKER:  I  esteem  it  a  privilege  as  well  as  a  duty  to  offer  on 
this  occasion  my  humble  tribute  to  the  memory  of  our  late  lamented 
Speaker.  I  do  so  not  as  a  mere  empty  ceremony,  but  prompted  by 
a  profound  respect  for  the  great  qualities  of  mind  and  heart  which 
adorned  his  life,  which  sustained  him  in  sickness  and  in  death,  and 
the  memory  of  which  will  live  long  in  the  history  of  his  country  and 
in  the  hearts  of  his  countrymen.  I  desire  to  speak  a  few  words  in 
remembrance  of  his  virtues  in  this  place,  which  was  the  scene  of  so 
much  of  his  public  career,  and  on  this  day,  which  our  records  are  to 
dedicate  sacredly  to  his  memory,  because  I  knew  him  well  and  es 
teemed  and  honored  him  in  life,  while  I  deeply  and  earnestly  lament 
his  death.  My  personal  acquaintance  with  Mr.  KERR  began  in  the 
Forty-first  Congress,  in  which  we  served  together  on  the  Committee 
of  Elections,  and  although  it  never  ripened  into  confidential  inti 
macy,  it  was  of  that  kind  which  enabled  me,  as  I  think,  to  form  a 
just  estimate  of  his  character.  His  active  participation  in  the  pro 
ceedings  of  Congress,  his  prominent  position  among  the  leaders  of  his 
party,  his  fearless,  bold,  and  outspoken  action  upon  all  public  ques 
tions,  brought  him  prominently  before  the  House  and  the  country, 
and  his  associates  upon  this  floor,  whether  personally  intimate  with 
him  or  not,  could  not  fail  to  know  him  as  a  Representative,  to  appre 
ciate  him  as  a  man,  and  to  realize  his  great  power.  He  was  a  man 
of  commanding  ability.  Toward  the  close  of  his  life  his  powers  were 
of  course  in  some  degree  impaired  by  disease;  and  yet  we  all  know 
how  remarkably  clear  and  vigorous  were  all  his  rulings  as  Speaker  as 
well  as  his  statement  of  the  ground  upon  which  he  placed  them. 
When  in  the  full  vigor  of  health  he  was  seldom  matched,  and  I  think 
never  overmatched,  in  debate  upon  this  floor.  He  was  a  careful  stu 
dent  and  thinker,  and  though  he  spoke  frequently,  it  was  never  at  ran- 


LIFE   AND    CHARACTER   OF    MICHAEL    C.    KERR.  45 

dom,  but  he  always  uttered  what  had  been  carefully  matured  and  set 
tled  in  his  own  mind.  He  was  a  profound  lawyer,  and  in  his  own 
State  as  well  as  elsewhere  he  stood  very  high  in  the  ranks  of  his  pro 
fession,  lie  was  a  man  of  intense  convictions,  and  always  uttered  what 
he  thoroughly  believed  to  be  true  and  defended  what  he  thoroughly 
believed  to  be  right,  while  his  denunciation  of  what  he  deemed  false 
and  wrong  was  always  earnest  and  vigorous.  To  these  rare  qualities 
he  added  thorough  honesty  and  the  utmost  purity  of  life  in  all  its  rela 
tions,  whether  public  or  private.  I  may  not  from  personal  knowledge 
speak  of  the  beauty  and  sweetness  of  his  home-life  and  of  his  purely 
private  and  domestic  relations,  but  these  have  been  since  his  death, 
as  they  were  in  his  life,  the  theme  upon  which  those  who  were  very 
near  to  him  have  most  loved  to  dwell. 

It  is  praise,  indeed,  to  say  of  one  departed,  "  He  was  a  good  hus 
band,  a  good  father,  and  a  good  citizen,"  and  when  we  may  add,  "  He 
was  a  true  patriot,  an  able  and  faithful  public  servant,  and  a  wise  and 
sagacious  statesman,"  the  eulogy  is  complete.  As  a  presiding  officer 
our  late  Speaker  was  a  model  of  dignity,  urbanity,  and  impartiality. 
His  course  while  in  the  chair  was  such  as  not  only  to  command  the 
respect  but  also  to  win  the  esteem  and  confidence  of  his  political 
opponents,  as  well  as  his  party  associates.  I  take  this  occasion  to 
bear  willing  and  emphatic  testimony  to  this  fact.  I  refer  to  it  with 
great  pleasure,  because  in  it  I  find  an  illustration  of  that  devotion  to 
duty  and  faithfulness  to  public  trust  which  distinguished  him,  and 
which  must  characterize  the  life  of  every  really  great  man.  Here  is 
to  be  found  one  of  the  surest  tests  by  which  to  discover  a  really  lofty 
character.  When  such  a  character  is  called  to  a  position  where  he 
is  to  decide  questions  arising  between  his  fellow-men,  he  is  sure  to 
rise  above  every  consideration  except  those  which  concern  justice 
and  the  law.  Mr.  KERR  was  an  active  participant  in  many  exciting 
partisan  contests  upon  this  floor  during  his  service  here,  and  few  men 
ever  defended  in  debate  their  party  or  its  principles  with  greater  zeal 


46  ADDRESS   OF    MR.   ATKINS   ON    THE 

and  ability;  but  as  Speaker  he  seemed  to  know  no  party.  He  took 
his  great  office  with  a  firm  resolve  to  administer  it  with  perfect 
fidelity,  to  be  absolutely  faithful  and  just,  and  he  kept  that  purpose 
to  the  end. 

I  speak  thus  of  the  deceased  Speaker  with  all  the  more  pleasure 
because,  while  we  were  personal  friends,  we  were  political  opponents, 
and  I  feel  that  on  that  account  my  poor  words  of  eulogy  would  be 
very  grateful  to  him  if  he  could  hear  them,  and  that  they  may  be  a 
source  of  consolation  to  the  bereaved  ones  he  has  left  behind.  It  is 
according  to  the  genius  of  our  institutions  that  political  differences 
should  never  engender  personal  animosities.  The  right  of  private 
judgment  and  of  free  speech  is  a  right  so  sacred,  and  belongs  so 
sacredly  to  all,  that  we  are  bound  to  recognize  it  and  respect  it  in 
our  opponents  if  we  would  preserve  it  for  ourselves.  The  great 
American  principle  of  toleration  lies  at  the  foundation  of  our  civil  as 
well  as  our  religious  liberty;  and  that  principle  is  obeyed  in  its  true 
spirit  only  by  those  who  have  learned,  not  merely  to  tolerate  an  oppo 
nent,  but  to  honor  and  respect  an  honest  and  manly  adversary.  Such 
an  adversary  was  MICHAEL  C.  KERR;  and  as  it  was  my  pleasure 
while  he  lived  upon  all  proper  occasions  to  bear  testimony  to  his  ex 
alted  character,  it  is  still  my  pleasure,  now  that  he  has  passed  on  into 
that  higher  and  better  life,  to  speak  in  praise  of  his  many  virtues  and 
in  honor  of  his  memory. 


ATKINS,    OF    JENNESSEE. 

Mr.  SPEAKER  :  At  this  stage  of  these  memorial  ceremonies  I  con 
sult  the  emotions  of  my  heart  rather  than  the  dictates  of  my  judg 
ment  in  attempting  to  speak  on  this  mournful  occasion. 

The  fame  and  popularity  of  the  distinguished  dead,  in  the  State 
of  Tennessee,  makes  it  meet  that  some  one  of  her  representatives 
should  pay  a  sincere  tribute  of  respect  to  the  memory  of  one  who  so 
largely  commanded  her  admiration  and  esteem. 


LIFE    AND    CHARACTER    OF    MICHAEL    C.    KERR.  47 

Truly  Tennessee  gives  utterance  of  her  sorrow  and  sympathy 
with  Indiana,  who  keeps  vestal  watch  over  the  honor  of  one  of  her 
favorite  and  most  distinguished  sons,  and  would  remind  her  that  she, 
too,  yea,  that  a  nation,  claims  the  patrimony  of  his  fame  and  in  his 
death  shares  the  spoliation  and  the  loss. 

This  mute  assemblage,  these  gloomy  faces,  these  pendent  trap 
pings  of  national  sorrow,  bespeak  a  more  than  ordinary  occasion  of 
sadness.  It  is  the  heart-felt  lamentation  of  the  American  people, 
through  their  representatives,  over  the  loss  of  a  wise  statesman,  a 
pure  patriot,  and  an  honest  man;  while  it  is  a  proper  manifestation 
of  the  personal  grief,  mellowed  a  little  by  time,  which  pervades  this 
entire  Hall  over  this  unusual  if  not  altogether  unprecedented  bereave 
ment,  in  the  death  of  its  presiding  officer. 

Already  have  we  gazed  with  intense  admiration  upon  the  living 
portrait  of  this  truly  noble  man,  as  it  has  been  faithfully  drawn  to 
day  by  his  colleagues  anJ  peers.  Starting  with  the  first  buddings  of 
character  in  infancy,  amid  the  sports  and  freaks  of  childhood,  until 
ruder  and  stronger  traits  unfolded  themselves,  hardened  by  the  iron 
touch  of  poverty,  when  at  length  he  boldly  entered  the  emulous 
walks  of  a  self-reliant  manhood;  winning  this  trophy,  bearing  off 
that  honor,  gaining  this  triumph,  all  the  time  assuming  responsibili 
ties  and  enlarging  the  scope  of  his  duties  and  deepening  the  founda 
tions  of  his  popularity  by  the  most  devoted  consecration  to  the 
public  interests,  until  finally  he  aspired  to  the  exalted  and  dis 
tinguished  office  of  Speaker  of  this  House,  and  was  fortunate  enough 
to  have  the  aspiration  of  his  noble  ambition  crowned  with  brilliant 
success. 

It  is  reserved,  however,  for  the  hand  of  affection  to  trace  and 
gather  up  the  incidents  and  events  of  his  inward  life  and  domestic 
feelings,  which,  inseparably  interwoven,  form  the  woof  of  his  private 
history.  These  all  will  be  laid  away  as  golden  treasures  in  memory's 
casket,  which  only  is  in  the  keeping  of  domestic  love  and  filial  devo- 


48  ADDRESS   OF    MR.    ATKINS    ON    THE 

tion,  never  again  to  meet  with  the  world's  harsh  encounter.  These 
tender  associations  let  us  leave  inurned  within  the  sacred  chambers 
of  inconsolable  private  grief;  but  of  his  outward  life  and  public 
services  we  may  speak,  for  they  belong  to  the  country  and  to 
society. 

Nor  can  we  fairly  forecast  his  true  character  even  as  a  public  man 
without  analyzing  in  some  degree  his  elementary  characteristics. 

Indomitable  energy  and  unflagging  perseverance,  linked  with  an 
earnestness  born  of  deep  and  abiding  conviction,  marked  all  of  his 
efforts,  and  enabled  him  almost  invariably  to  succeed  in  whatever 
he  undertook.  With  him  action  always  followed  conviction.  Sprung 
from  the  ranks  of  the  people,  all  of  his  sympathies  and  principles 
were  in  accord  with  them.  He  was  truly  a  tribune  of  the  people. 
Although  devoted  to  party  organization,  he  never  surrendered  or 
sacrificed  to  partisan  advantage  any  real  or  substantive  right  which 
belonged  alike  to  all.  He  was  a  partisan,  but  his  partisanship  was 
used  as  a  means  for  the  accomplishment  of  just  public  undertakings, 
and  not  as  an  end  in  the  abstract.  Watching  his  career  as  a  public 
man,  he  impressed  me  as  an  honest  inquirer  after  truth.  He  had  a 
simple,  child-like  faith  in  its  omnipotence,  and  wherever  its  clarion 
notes  sounded,  thitherward  he  bent  his  steps  and  there  planted  the 
standard  of  his  unswerving  fealty.  Of  course  he  could  not  be  other 
than  reliable,  conscientious,  and  consistent.  His  character  panoplied 
with  these  noble  principles,  it  was  not  astonishing  that  public  senti 
ment  of  all  parties,  recently,  should  have  rushed  to  his  rescue,  to 
ward  off  the  poisoned  javelins  of  calumny  and  detraction,  before 
even  the  courts  of  justice  or  a  committee  of  Congress  were  enabled 
to  pronounce  the  decree  of  his  complete  vindication.  His  mind 
turned  with  instinctive  horror  from  every  appearance  of  indirection, 
deceit,  or  dishonorable  action,  sustaining  with  true  courage  whatever 
he  believed  to  be  right,  and  opposing  with  his  whole  nature  what  he 
conceived  to  be  wrong.  Like  Burke,  he  believed  bad  men  capable 


LIFE    AND    CHARACTER   OF    MICHAEL   C.    KERR.  49 

of  doing  any  evil,  however  dark  and  wicked;  hence  he  had  no 
intimate  associations  or  personal  relations  only  as  acquaintance  and 
time  developed  the  character  and  justified  the  friendship.  As  a 
consequence  his  personal  friendships  were  limited,  strong,  unchange 
able,  and  unsuspecting.  Such  a  man  was  worthy  of  being  the  leader 
of  the  people  as  he  was  unquestionably  their  advocate  and  defender. 
He  did  not  feel  that  his  official  duties,  exalted,  responsible,  and 
honorable  as  they  were,  made  him  an  irresponsible  ruler  or  consti 
tuted  in  him  any  superiority  to  his  constituency.  He  ever  bowed 
with  graceful  and  patriotic  submission  to  the  adverse  will  of  the 
majority  when  constitutionally  expressed.  These  attachments  to 
popular  rights  and  his  unfeigned  profession  of  political  faith  and 
doctrine  created  within  his  manly  bosom  the  broadest  and  profound- 
est  love  of  country. 

No  statesman  knew  better  than  he  the  true  nature  of  our  Govern 
ment,  the  genius  of  our  free  institutions,  our  past  history,  foreign  and 
domestic  relations,  and  the  real  temper  and  interests  of  the  people. 
No  one  knew  better  than  he  that  the  truest  and  most  steadfast 
friends  of  liberty  are  a  frugal,  intelligent,  and  virtuous  rural  popula 
tion.  No  one  knew  better  than  he  from  the  pages  of  history  that 
avarice,  vice,  and  national  vanity,  when  once  allowed  to  obtain  a 
hold  upon  the  rulers  of  a  nation,  smother  the  love  of  country  and 
drive  out  those  simple,  manly  virtues  in  the  people,  by  long  accus 
toming  them  to  acts  of  usurpation  and  doubtful  authority,  until  they 
finally  cease  to  care  to  what  power  they  owe  allegiance — by  what 
they  are  governed.  These  dangerous  and  insidious  inroads,  gradually 
made  upon  the  rights  of  the  masses,  and  which  so  often  have  befallen 
free  governments  and  caused  their  overthrow,  ever  caught  the  fire  of 
his  jealous  eye  and  encountered  in  their  incipiency  the  whole  weight 
of  his  uncompromising  opposition. 

And  thou  in  this  shall  find  thy  monument, 

When  tyrant's  crests  and  tombs  of  brass  are  spent. 


1   K 


50  ADDRESS  OF  MR.  HEREFORD  ON  THE 

Clothed  with  the  delicate  trust  by  party  suffrage  of  exercising 
magisterial  authority  over  the  representatives  of  all  the  people,  he 
never  forgot  that  he  best  vindicated  the  honor  and  dignity  of  his 
high  position  by  observing  the  utmost  fairness  in  his  rulings  and 
maintaining  toward  all,  without  regard  to  partisan  distinctions,  per 
fect  impartiality. 

As  the  mother  of  the  Gracchi,  when  asked  for  her  jewels,  pointed 
to  her  sons,  so  do  a  free  constituency  regard  the  representative 
whose  private  life  presents  a  stainless  escutcheon,  while  the  mirror 
of  his  public  record  reflects  only  the  images  of  truth,  virtue,  and 
patriotism. 

While  this  matter-of-fact  world  excludes  even  the  contemplation 
of  the  ideal  and  counts  nothing  worth  save  the  practical  and  the 
true,  yet  where  in  all  the  land  whose  reputation  of  all  of  our  public 
men  for  the  last  quarter  of  a  century  would  furnish  the  artist  a  truer 
model  or  the  poet  a  more  perfect  ideal  of  human  virtue  and  worth 
than  the  moral  and  mental  traits  which  made  up  the  manly  and 
noble  character  of  MICHAEL  C.  KERR  ? 

Alas !  he  has  passed  away,  but  his>  name  is  one  of  the  household 
words  of  this  Hall  of  Representatives,  and  will  live  with  the  truest 
and  noblest  who  have  worn  its  chief  honors. 

To  live  with  fame 
The  gods  allow  to  many,  but  to  die 
With  equal  luster,  is  a  blessing  Heaven 
Selects  from  all  her  choicest  boons  of  Fate, 
And  with  a  sparing  hand,  on  few  bestows. 


OF  JVEST  y 

Mr.  SPEAKER:  If  I  had  consulted  my  own  wishes  and  inclinations 
I  should  have  been  silent  during  the  present  sad  hour;  but  having 
been  requested  to  join  in  the  ceremonies  of  the  occasion,  with  sad- 


LIFE    AND    CHARACTER   OF    MICHAEL    C.    KERR.  51 

ness  of  heart  and  trembling  hand  I  lay  my  wreath  upon  his  bier, 
humble  though  it.  be. 

I  feel  proud  to  be  able  to  class  myself  as  one  of  the  earliest  and 
warmest  friends  of  the  deceased ;  not  only  his  friend,  but  adviser.  For 
several  years  we  served  together  in  this  House ;  during  that  time  I 
watched  his  career;  each  day  he  grew  upon  me;  not  only  so,  but  he 
gre\v  upon  the  country  untfl  he  was  called  to  fill  yonder  chair,  now 
draped  in  mourning.  He  became  the  Speaker  of  the  Forty-fourth 
Congress,  filling,  and  filling  worthily,  the  position  held  by  such  men 
as  Muhlenberg,  Clay,  Stevenson,  Polk,  Winthrop,  Linn  Boyd,  and 
BANKS. 

MICHAEL  C.  KERR  illustrated  in  his  own  person  one  of  the  excel 
lences  of  our  form  of  government,  the  possibility,  right,  and  power 
of  any  of  its  citizens  to  fill  its  highest,  most  honorable,  and  most  re 
sponsible  positions,  provided  he  deserved  them,  deserved  them  by  his 
ability,  energy,  and  integrity.  He  was  pre-eminently  the  architect  of 
his  own  fortune.  He  had  not  the  adventitious  aid  of  family  or  for 
tune;  but  unaided  and  alone  he  climbed  the  ladder  of  fame  until  he  had 
almost  reached  its  topmost  round.  It  may  be  truthfully  said  of  him 
as  was  said  of  Anstides  and  Cato,  "  that  he  advanced  himself  to  great 
honor  and  dignity  in  the  commonwealth  by  no  other  means  than  his 
own  virtue  and  industry."  The  young  men  of  our  country  have  in 
him  a  bright  exemplar  to  cheer  them  on  in  their  lonely  struggles  for 
place  and  position,  and  I  only  hope  that  like  him  they  may  never 
swerve  from  the  path  of  high  honor  and  unyielding  integrity.  In  all 
his  congressional  career  he  labored  most  assiduously  for  his  country 
and  the  Constitution ;  truly  could  he  adopt  the  language  that  Plutarch 
applied  to  himself:  "This  service,  I  say,  is  not  for  myself  ;  it  is  for  my 
country."  Among  all  his  colleagues  on  this  floor  I  know  no  one  who 
more  fixedly  and  constantly  made  the  Constitution  his  polar  star.  He 
kept  his  eye  steadily  upon  it.  When  any  question  arose  in  our  delib 
erations  upon  which  he  was  called  to  act,  the  first  question  he  pro- 


52  ADDRESS  OF  MR.  HEREFORD  OX  THE 

pounded  to  himself  was,  "  Is  this  measure  constitutional  ?''  If  not,  he 
opposed  it. 

With  that  as  his  chart  and  compass  he  felt  confident  of  guiding  the 
great  ship  of  state  safely  through  all  storms,  however  high  the  billows 
might  rise  or  however  black  and  angry  the  clouds  might  become.  He 
had  a  living  and  abiding  faith  that  the  billows  would  subside,  the 
clouds  pass  away,  the  stars  again  shine  out  brightly,  the  night  pass 
away,  and  the  sun  of  the  morrow  rise  brightly  upon  the  vessel  and 
its  noble  crew. 

I  never  knew  a  man  who  had  stronger  convictions  and  clearer  con 
ceptions,  and  these  convictions  he  followed  most  scrupulously  to  their 
logical  results,  without  turning  to  the  right  or  left  or  stopping  to  see 
the  result.  The  sordid,  selfish  arts  of  the  demagogue  or  political 
trickster  he  utterly  loathed.  He  adopted  as  his  guide  the  follow 
ing  language  of  Aristotle  :  "  Popular  governments  in  which  the  con 
stitution  and  laws  are  supreme  afford  no  place  for  demagogues. 
Where,  however,  the  laws  are  not  sovereign,  demagogues  spring  up." 
O,  that  in  this  centennial  period,  this  our  hour  of  peril,  these  lines 
and  this  sentiment  were  emblazoned  upon  the  dome  of  this  Capitol, 
written  in  letters  of  living  light  over  the  Speaker's  chair,  upon  every 
public  building  and  private  house  throughout  our  broad,  beloved,  and 
distracted  land !  I  know  of  no  public  man  of  his  day  who  more  thor 
oughly  demonstrated  in  his  public  life  the  sentiment  of  William  Pitt, 
the  Great  Commoner  of  England,  when  he  said,  "  I  will  not  go  to 
court  if  I  may  not  bring  the  constitution  with  me." 

As  a  debater  he  had  few  equals  on  this  floor  or  elsewhere ;  clear, 
concise,  and  logical,  as  a  steady  opponent  of  jobs,  rings,  subsidies, 
and  partial  legislation  he  yielded  to  no  one.  Who  of  all  his  col 
leagues  does  not  recall  that  clear,  ringing  voice  of  his  in  clarion 
tones  denouncing  what  he  deemed  corrupt  and  pernicious  legis 
lation?  As  a  presiding  officer,  though  emaciated  and  feeble  physi 
cally,-  he  gave  evidence  of  being  equal  to  any  who  had  preceded  him, 


LIFE   AND    CHARACTER   OF    MICHAEL   C.    KERR.  53 

always  commanding  the  high  respect,  confidence,  and  admiration  of 
the  whole  House  irrespective  of  party. 

He  had  the  high  purpose,  the  firm  resolve,  and  dauntless  courage 
of  a  statesman  of  the  highest  order.  With  him  the  blandishments  of 
power  had  no  influence ;  he  yielded  neither  to  its  behests  nor  was 
allured  by  its  trappings.  While  he  had  the  very  highest  respect  for 
the  voice  of  the  people  constitutionally  expressed,  he  heeded  not  the 
frowns  of  the  infuriated  mob  goaded  on  by  designing  demagogues. 
He  never  crooked  "  the  pregnant  hinges  of  the  knee  where  thrift  may 
follow  fawning." 

His  aims  were  unselfish,  his  hands  were  clean,  his  life  was  pure  and 
full  of  the  tenderest  affection  for  a  noble  and  loving  wife  and  a  fond 
and  obedient  son. 

But  he  is  no  more.  He  has  been  called  to  his  long  home.  His 
labors  on  earth  are  closed.  His  voice  will  no  more  be  heard  in  these 
Halls.  His  last  remains  lie  buried  beneath  the  soil  of  his  adopted 
State,  Indiana.  No  more  shall  we  meet  his  tall,  manly  form  and  be 
permitted  to  grasp  his  unsoiled  hand.  He  will  no  more  go  in  and  out 
before  us.  But  may  we  all  meet  him  again  in  that  better  land,  on 
that  "great  clay  for  which  all  other  days  were  made,  for  which  earth 
sprang  from  chaos,  man  from  earth,  and  God  from  eternity." 


OF    MR.    KNOTT,  OF    KENTUCKY. 

It  may  be  considered  a  work  of  supererogation  on  my  part,  Mr. 
Speaker,  to  offer  a  single  remark  in  addition  to  what  has  already  been 
so  eloquently  said  by  other  gentlemen  on  the  present  melancholy 
occasion,  yet  there  are  certain  circumstances  which  will  perhaps  excuse 
me,  if  indeed  they  do  not  render  it  peculiarly  appropriate  that  I 
should  beg  the  brief  indulgence  of  the  House  at  this  time,  not  for 
the  vain  purpose  of  attempting  to  express  my  own  private  grief  for 


54  ADDRESS    OF   MR.    tfNOTT   ON   THE 

the  death  of  our  lamented  Speaker — for  at  the  tomb  of  a  loved  and 
honored  friend  the  anguish  of  genuine  friendship  can  find  no  voice — 
but  that  I  may  contribute  my  assistance,  feeble  as  it  may  be,  in  crys 
tallizing  in  the  history  of  the  country  to  whose  service  he  dedicated 
the  best  years  of  his  life  some  of  the  evidences  of  his  merits  derived 
from  long  and  intimate  personal  association. 

It  was  in  the  midst  of  one  of  the  most  refined  and  cultivated  com 
munities  in  the  district  I  now  have  the  honor  to  represent  upon  this 
floor  that  Mr.  KERK  first  stepped  upon  the  arena  of  active  manhood. 
It  was  at  the  beautiful  little  town  of  Bloomfield,  in  the  State  of 
Kentucky,  that  he  laid  the  foundation  of  his  subsequent  career  of 
usefulness  and  honor  while  engaged  as  a  faithful,  earnest,  and  efficient 
instructor  of  youth.  There  in  the  intervals  of  his  arduous  duties  as 
a  teacher,  which  others  might  have  devoted  to  idleness  and  pleasure, 
he  mastered  the  fundamental  principles  of  jurisprudence  and  political 
philosophy  with  which  in  after  life,  both  as  a  lawyer  and  a  statesman, 
he  showed  himself  so  remarkably  familiar.  There  his  indefatigable 
energy,  his  indomitable  will,  his  unwearying  industry,  and,  above  all, 
his  immaculate  integrity,  are  still  held  up  for  the  emulation  of  the 
aspiring  youth  who,  in  the  face  of  penury  and  misfortune,  would 
achieve  an  honorable  distinction  among  his  fellow-men.  There  those 
striking  traits  of  a  manly  character  which  distinguished  him  through 
life,  and  which  have  already  been  so  happily  portrayed  by  the  elo 
quent  gentlemen  who  have  preceded  me,  won  for  him  the  confidence, 
the  respect,  and  the  affections  of  a  large  circle  of  warm-hearted,  gen 
erous  friends,  who,  sympathizing  in  all  his  laudable  aspirations  and 
proud  of  his  well-earned  success,  delighted  to  do  him  honor  when  he 
had  struggled  far  up  the  rugged  steeps  of  a  justly-merited  fame. 

Of  his  early  friends  at  Bloomfield  he  delighted  to  speak  in  terms 
of  the  most  affectionate  remembrance,  and  I  have  heard  him  fre 
quently  remark  that  the  happiest,  proudest  moment  of  his  life  was 
when  they  welcomed  him  back  in  their  midst  after  years  of  absence, 


LIFE   AND    CHARACTER   OF    MICHAEL   C.    KERR.  55 

to  a  grand  ovation  to  which  they  had  invited  him  just  after  his  last 
election  to  Congress. 

My  own  personal  acquaintance  with  Mr.  KERR  began  in  July,  1867, 
when  I  met  him  for  the  first  time  on  the  floor  of  this  House,  as  a 
member  of  the  Fortieth  Congress.  A  variety  of  circumstances  soon 
brought  us  into  frequent,  intimate,  and  confidential  intercourse  with 
each  other,  and  afforded  me  the  most  favorable  opportunities  of 
becoming  familiarly  acquainted  with  one  of  the  most  admirable  char 
acters  with  which  I  have  ever  come  in  contact ;  a  character  which 
perhaps  but  few  have  ever  fully  appreciated  in  all  its  excellence, 
because  but  few  have  studied  it  from  the  same  stand-point  and  under 
similar  circumstances  to  those  I  was  so  fortunate  as  to  enjoy. 

The  most  remarkable  trait  in  that  character,  indeed  the  key  to  Mr. 
KERR'S  whole  life,  public  and  private,  was  his  unswerving,  unfalter 
ing,  inflexible  fealty  to  Truth  under  all  circumstances  and  upon  all 
occasions  whatever.  In  the  light  of  that  single  fact,  every  act  and 
utterance  of  his  public  and  private  career  should  be  viewed.  It  was 
this  that  led  him  to  act  in  everything  upon  the  maxim  of  Aristotle, 
that  incredulity  is  the  source  of  all  wisdom — to  take  nothing  for 
granted,  but  to  satisfy  himself  by  actual  investigation  of  the  real  foun 
dation  as  well  as  the  ultimate  conclusion  of  every  proposition  upon 
whatever  subject  that  might  be  submitted  to  his  mind.  Hence 
resulted  those  habits  of  indefatigable  labor,  careful  analysis,  patient 
research,  profound  meditation,  and  deliberate  utterance,  for  which  he 
was  so  distinguished.  It  was  this  same  devotion  to  the  truth  as  he 
understood  it  that  gave  him  the  reputation  among  some  who  had  not 
made  a  careful  analysis  of  his  character,  of  being  unduly  obstinate 
in  the  maintenance  of  his  own  opinions.  His  was  truly  a  firmness 
that  would  have  led  him  to  a  martyr's  stake ;  but  it  was  a  firmness 
resulting  from  a  conviction  of  duty  and  not  from  any  mere  false  pride 
of  opinion.  It  was  this  same  fealty  to  truth  that  made  him  the  very 
impersonation  of  personal  honor  and  official  integrity.  Slow,  and  at 


56  ADDRESS    OF    MR.    KNOTT    ON    THE 

times  apparently  timid  in  arriving  at  his  conclusions,  reaching  them 
usually  after  patient  and  laborious  investigation,  and  ever  impelled  by 
an  inexorable  sense  of  duty,  none  of  the  blandishments  of  flattery, 
no  allurement  of  place,  or  power,  or  fame,  no  threat  of  defeat  or 
unpopularity,  no  influence  of  mere  private  friendship  could  swerve 
him  a  hair's  breadth  from  the  right  as  he  understood  it,  or  deter  him 
from  the  honest,  outspoken  expression  of  his  own  fixed  opinions. 
There  was  but  one  possible  way  to  move  him,  and  that  was  to  con 
vince  him  of  his  error,  and  when  convinced  no  one  was  ever  more 
ready  to  confess  or  retract  his  mistake.  It  was  this  same  fidelity  to 
truth  which  infused  into  his  oratory  that  peculiar  fervor  and  energy 
of  expression  which  frequently  characterized  it,  not  only  in  stating  his 
deliberately-conceived  opinions,  but  when  indulging,  as  he  sometimes 
did,  in  flashes  of  fierce  invective  when  his  indignation  was  aroused 
by  the  detection  of  falsehood  or  hypocrisy;  for  whatever  was  false,  or 
fraudulent,  or  in  any  wise  deceptive,  his  innate  love  of  truth  led  him 
to  despise  with  an  intensity  almost  beyond  the  reach  of  expression. 
And  finally,  sir,  it  was  owing  to  his  fealty  to  truth  that  some  were 
led  into  the  strangest  of  all  possible  misconceptions  of  his  character. 
There  were  those  who  regarded  him  as  a  singularly  cold,  unfriendly 
man,  while  the  truth  was  a  truer,  warmer,  tenderer  heart,  or  one  more 
loyal  to  its  friends,  never  beat  in  human  bosom.  He  scorned,  from 
the  very  depths  of  his  soul,  the  arts  of  flattery  and  dissimulation,  and 
had  the  manly  courage,  so  rare,  so  difficult  to  find,  to  remind  his 
friends  plainly,  candidly,  and  truthfully  of  their  faults. 

But,  sir,  I  will,  not  abuse  your  patience  by  a  further  analysis  of  the 
character  of  our  dead  Speaker.  It  stands  out  amid  those  of  his  com 
peers,  a  Doric  column,  symmetrical  in  its  solidity,  beautiful  in  the 
utter  absence  of  all  meretricious  ornament,  and  immaculate  in  the 
material  of  which  it  was  reared.  Few  like  it  illustrate  the  annals  of 
our  race. 


LIFE   AND   CHARACTER   OF    MICHAEL   C.    KERR.  57 


ADDRESS  OF    MR     VANCE,  OF   OHIO. 

Mr.  SPEAKER  :  In  rising  to-day  to  give  utterance  to  my  feelings 
of  personal  bereavement,  I  feel — as  one  does  not  often  feel  on  occa 
sions  of  this  character — -that  the  Joss  of  one  is  the  loss  of  all.  In 
giving  this  feeble  token  of  my  grief  that  we  no  longer  have  MICHAEL 
(  .  KERR  of  Indiana  in  our  midst,  I  but  utter  what  every  patriotic 
citizen  of  his  State  and  our  country  must  feel :  that  our  grief  is  no 
common  grief,  our  loss  no  common  loss,  and  that  it  will  be  long 
ere  the  void  made  by  the  death  of  our  lamented  Speaker  will  again 
be  filled  by  such  a  man  as  he.  When  a  man  by  the  resolute  force  of 
his  own  invincible  character  attains  exalted  station,  and  is  charged 
with  the  performance  of  important  public  functions — and  that,  too, 
at  a  time  when  circumstances  seem  such  that  considerations  of  party 
fealty  are  likely  to  determine  the  choice  in  favor  of  those  who  have 
earned  recognition  by  partisan  services,  rather  than  that  the  prize 
should  be  adjudged  to  unostentatious  merit — his  removal  by  the  hand 
of  death  is  a  circumstance  so  unfortunate  as  to  arouse  the  sympa 
thies  of  even  the  hardest  of  hearts.  To  be  denied  the  light  of  his 
counsel  and  the  encouragement  of  his  voice  is  a  deprivation  of  no 
ordinary  magnitude ;  a  national  calamity  that  all  must  deplore. 

Although  my  acquaintance  with  the  late  Speaker  was  formed  dur 
ing  the  latter  years  of  his  life,  yet  familiarity  with  his  many  excellent 
qualities  depended  not  upon  the  length  of  time  one  was  thrown  in  con 
tact  with  him.  To  appreciate  the  manly,  genial,  and  conciliatory 
turn  of  his  mind,  one  has  but  to  glance  at  his  conduct  during  the 
organization  of  the  present  House;  to  know  his  worth  and  truly  appre 
ciate  the  most  exalted  phases  of  his  character,  one  should  be  of  the 
number  of  those  who  originally  had  some  other  preference  for  the 
Speakership.  But  from  whatever  stand-point  one  studies  him,  whether 


8  K 


58  ADDRESS    OF    MR.    VANCE    ON    THE 

as  a  supporter  or  as  an  opponent,  the  honest  observer  must  acknowl 
edge  the  stability  and  rectitude  of  his  character,  the  firmness  of  his 
purpose,  and  the  geniality  of  his  heart.  The  trying  flame  of  physical 
suffering  only  seemed  to  bring  forth  more  brilliantly  the  golden  treas 
ures  of  his  judgment.  With  a  rich  and  varied  experience,  such  as 
seems  essential  for  a  truthful  knowledge  of  human  nature,  he  was 
placed  in  the  Speaker's  chair  at  a  time  when  his  public  career  was 
seemingly  opening  before  him  a  wide  field  of  usefulness.  The  sad 
story  of  his  physical  decline  and  untimely  death  is  written  in  indeli 
ble  characters  in  the  hearts  of  every  one  who  during  the  last  session 
saw  the  almost  superhuman  exertions  he  made  to  appear  in  the  chair 
of  the  House  and  perform  his  trying  duties — duties  that  had  he  been 
in  ordinary  health  would  have  weighed  upon  him  as  a  straw  upon 
the  arm  of  a  giant. 

Who,  were  the  power  granted  him,  would  willingly  enter  into  the 
secret  thoughts  of  the  strong  man,  struck  with  mortal  disease,  con 
scious  of  his  infirmity,  aware  of  its  nature,  and  knowing  only  too  well 
its  inevitable  end?  The  evils  of  life  tell  all  of  us  that  there  are  call 
ings  among  the  occupations  of  men  which  bring  those  who  assume 
their  duties  into  contact  with  sickness  and  distress,  to  whom  such 
sad  stories  are  among  the  daily  incidents  of  life.  A  cultivated  mind, 
and  the  consciousness  of  ability  to  mitigate  suffering  and  alleviate 
anxiety,  may  be  some  compensation  for  the  strain  to  which  human 
feeling  is  subjected ;  but  who,  I  again  ask,  not  of  those  professions, 
would  willingly  enter  into  the  secret  thoughts  of  one  conscious  of  his 
rapidly  approaching  end,  and  share  with  the  sufferer  the  terrible  dis 
tress  which  must  arise  when  he  sees  the  dark,  unknown  future  rap 
idly  drawing  upon  him,  soon  doomed  to  separate  him  from  the  pres 
ent,  with  all  its  cares,  all  its  responsibilities  ?  To  one  in  robust  health 
the  thought  even  is  replete  with  pain.  How  great,  then,  must  have 
been  the  fortitude,  the  power  of  resisting  suffering,  and  the  ability  to 
banish  thought  of  self  in  our  late  Speaker  during  all  those  long, 


LIFE   AND   CHARACTER   OF    MICHAEL   C.    KERR.  59 

weary  days  when,  borne  down  by  disease  and  racked  with  pain,  he 
still  persisted  in  performing  the  duties  of  his  office  ?  Nothing  but 
an  abiding  sense  of  the  importance  of  the  task  devolved  upon  him, 
and  a  deep  consciousness  that  it  was  better  for  him  to  persevere  and 
die  in  performance  of  his  duty,  rather  than  shrink  from  its  execu 
lion,  kept  him  at  his  post  at  a  time  when  all  were  conscious  that  he 
was  wearing  away  his  life.  At  a  time  and  under  circumstances  when 
almost  any  other  man  would  have  dismissed  thought  of  public  cares 
from  his  mind  and  devoted  attention  to  himself,  Mr.  KERR  knew  no 
other  course  than  that  which  inspired  him  to  let  all  else  go,  and  abide 
by  the  demands  of  that  country  to  whose  service  he  had  already 
devoted  many  of  the  best  years  of  his  life.  The  result  we  all  know. 
Many  men  have  fallen  martyrs  on  the  field  of  battle.  To  MICHAEL 
C.  KERR  it  was  reserved  to  offer  his  life  and  his  all  on  the  altar  of  his 
country,  unanimated  by  the  clamor  of  contest  or  the  shock  of  battle — 
a  martyr  to  conviction — one  who  died  for  his  country  in  giving  her 
those  services  she  stood  so  much  in  need  of. 


.  J'HILIPS,  OF 

Mr.  SPEAKER:  The  voice  of  Missouri  ought  not  to  be  silent  on  an 
occasion  like  this.  As  a  part  of  the  Louisiana  Territory  acquired 
from  France,  Missouri  was  first  under  the  pupilage  of  Governor  Har 
rison,  of  Indiana.  The  civil  polity  of  her  local  institutions  was  thus 
impressed  upon  the  very  childhood  of  Missouri.  Her  brave  and 
hardy  yeomanry  came  with  those  of  Kentucky  as  the  pioneers  who 
penetrated  the  wilds  of  the  western  bank  of  the  Mississippi  and 
hushed  the  shout  of  the  red  man,  felled  the  forests,  and  blazed  out 
the  pathways  for  the  coming  legions  of  civilization.  Allied  by  his 
tory  and  tradition,  recounting  the  perils,  privations,  and  achieve- 


60  ADDRESS   OF   MR.    PHILIPS   ON   THE 

ments  of  a  common  ancestry,  when  Indiana  presented  the  name  of 
her  distinguished  citizen  for  the  Speakership  of  this  Congress,  Mis 
souri  had  neither  prejudice  nor  jealousy  to  overcome  in  yielding  him 
her  support.  She  has  cause  to  mourn  his  loss,  and  lays  claim  to 
a  share  in  the  glory  of  his  name  and  fame  as  a  part  of  her  rightful 
heritage. 

It  is  no  purpose  or  province  of  mine  to  review  his  life.  That  office 
belongs  to  those  who  knew  him  best.  Nor  shall  I  offend  his  memory 
by  fulsome  eulogy.  Nothing  could  have  been  more  distasteful  to  him 
when  living.  "  Paint  me  as  I  am,"  said  Oliver  Cromwell,  while  sit 
ting  to  young  Lely.  "If  you  leave  out  the  scars  and  wrinkles  I  will 
not  pay  you  a  shilling."  Such  would  be  the  request  of  Mr.  KERR, 
could  he  now  speak  to  us. 

He  was  always  averse  to  display.  He  despised  shams  of  all  sorts. 
His  character  was  real.  Mere  idealism  and  speculation  found  no 
place  in  a  mind  occupied  and  surcharged  with  the  realities  of 
actual  life.  Rugged  in  thought  and  severe  in  habit,  the  world 
regarded  him  as  austere  and  cold.  Drawn  into  that  isolation  often 
unavoidable  to  the  professional  man  and  close  student,  he  was 
esteemed  unsocial. 

He  was  eminently  a  man  of  convictions.  He  had  no  model.  He 
investigated  and  thought  for  himself.  He  hung  not  in  the  midair  of 
hesitancy  or  doubt,  but  always  reached  a  conclusion.  He  grappled 
with  his  subject  and  mastered  it.  Hence  his  convictions  were  not 
visionary  or  momentary.  They  were  of  the  conscience  acting  through 
the  judgment,  and  were  abiding.  He  never  yielded  a  principle  for 
mere  expediency.  He  never  abandoned  the  right  for  success.  He 
did  not  believe  with  Shakespeare  in  applying  "craft  against  vice;" 
but  he  believed  rather  with  Hobbes,  that  craft  is  "  crooked  wisdom ; 
a  sign  of  pusillanimity."  Mere  policy  in  affairs  of  state  he  regarded 
as  too  often  the  abandonment  of  the  field  of  justice  and  patriotism  for 
a  triumph  empty  and  short-lived.  He  carried  no  concealed  dagger, 


LIFE    ANP    CHARACTER   OF    MICHAEL    C.    KERR.  6 1 

and  while  he  courted  no  unnecessary  contests  he  shrank  not  from  the 
open  field  and  an  equal  sword. 

During  the  heated  discussion  had  on  this  floor  last  session  over  the 
question  of  the  surrender  of  Hallet  Kilbourn  to  the  District  court,  I 
met  Speaker  KERR  near  the  door  to  the  left  of  his  chair  and  said  to 
him:  "What  do  you  think  of  the  policy  of  sending  Kilbourn  to  the 
court  and  leaving  the  responsibility  of  the  judgment  of  the  court  with 
the  republican  party?"  With  nervous  emphasis  he  instantly  replied : 
"It  will  not  do  at  all.  This  matter  involves  one  of  the  important 
constitutional  prerogatives  of  this  House.  To  yield  it  would  be  to 
place  ourselves  in  the  just  contempt  of  the  country  and  to  confess" 
our  imbecility." 

We  are  told  by  naturalists  that  birds  of  paradise  fly  swiftest  against 
the  wind.  While  the  contrary  winds  serve  to  display  the  brightness 
of  their  plumage,  in  drifting  behind  them  their  gorgeous  train  of 
feathers,  they  gather  strength  as  their  flight  is  entangled  with  the 
gale.  So  with  some  men,  the  stormy  day  is  better  for  their  mental 
qualities  than  the  calm.  Mr.  KERR'S  congressional  career  was  amid 
scenes  of  almost  revolutionary  excitement ;  when  political  virtue  and 
constitutional  principles  were  subjected  to  unexampled  tests.  It 
was  a  time  that  tried  men's  souls,  and  how  few  withstood  the  test ! 
It  was  the  development  of  Mr.  KERR.  It  aroused  the  latent  fires 
of  his  soul,  and  with  undaunted  courage  he  stood  in  the  forefront 
of  the  battle  for  constitutional  liberty  which  he  conceived  to  be 
imperiled.  On  the  ramparts  of  the  Constitution  he  stood  the  sleep 
less,  intrepid  sentinel.  Like  the  chivalric  Henry  V  on  the  field  of 
Agincourt,  charging  the  chafing,  desperate  Duke  of  Alen9on,  he  led 
the  serried  little  band  on  this  side  of  the  House  with  a  skill  and  cour 
age  that  extorted  applause  from  even  those  who  were  impaled  by  his 
unyielding  lance. 

Mr.  Speaker,  the  true  heroes  of  this  world  are  not  always  recog 
nized.  The  devotion  of  the  deluded  fakirs  as  they  mangle  their 


62  ADDRESS    OF    MR.    PHILIPS   ON   THE 

bodies  and  practice  all  manner  of  austerities,  the  reckless  daring  of 
the  fireman,  the  animal  courage  of  the  soldier,  fail  not  to  win  the 
applause  of  the  common  herd  of  men.  But  there  is  a  moral  heroism 
of  man  in  adhering  to  duty  and  the  right,  in  breasting  the  storm  of 
popular  opinion  under  circumstances  of  intimidation  and  temptation, 
of  which  the  world  takes  little  note,  but  is  as  grand  and  glorious  as 
martyrdom  itself.  In  these  days  of  moral  cowardice,  of  mock  joust- 
ings  and  tourney-loving  masses  of  political  hacks ;  of  the  men  "  of 
mint  and  anise  and  cumin;"  of  empiricism  and  social  and  political 
shoddyism,  when  counterfeit  pretension  passes  for  the  pure  coin  of 
solid  merit  and  brazen  impudence  challenges  public  confidence,  and 
admiration  even,  such  men  as  MICHAEL  C.  KERR,  who  lifted  against 
these  tawdry  trappings  of  a  vicious  age  the  blazing  buckler  of  a  more 
heroic  epoch,  are  a  nation's  glory  and  the  people's  hope. 

He  was  not  what  the  world  commonly  calls  a  genius.  But  if  genius 
be  defined  the  faculty  of  appreciation,  he  has  claims  to  the  coveted 
gift.  He  certainly  appreciated  "the  eternal  fitness  of  things."  He 
spoke  without  ornamentation,  directly  to  the  pending  issue,  with  a 
depth  of  earnestness  and  stress  of  emphasis  that  convinced  if  it  did 
not  charm.  He  seems  to  have  adopted  the  motto  of  Somers,  "Pro- 
desse  quam  conspici"  He  never  dropped  the  iron  links  of  argument 
for  the  gossamer  threads  of  rhetoric.  If  he  failed  in  the  glamour  of 
an  exuberant  fancy,  or  seldom  touched  the  deeper  chords  of  impas 
sioned  eloquence,  he  at  times  glowed  like  the  furnace  in  which  the 
richer  material  is  separated  from  the  dross  and  better  fitted  for  the 
uses  of  the  world.  If  he  was  imperious  in  opinion,  he  was  not  an 
unreasonable  dogmatist.  If  he  was  austere  in  manner  and  reserved 
in  intercourse,  he  was  no  demagogue  nor  fawning  sycophant. 
Idiosyncrasies  and  prejudices  he  may  have  had,  but  he  never 
betrayed  a  trust,  deceived  or  deserted  a  friend. 

Mr.  KERR  was  a  man  of  inexorable  honesty.  His  active  public 
life  lay  through  a  period  of  excessive  vice,  of  shameless  profligacy, 


LIFE   AND    CHARACTER   OF    MICHAEL   C.    KKRR.  63 

and  unblushing  corruption;  yet  perhaps  no  man  living  or  dead  kept 
his  official  garments  purer.  No  stain  is  on  them.  No  unclean  thing 
ever  touched  his  ermine.  No  serpent's  trail  crossed  his  path.  No 
cloud  of  dishonor  shadows  his  grave. 

When  amid  the  season  just  passed,  of  intense  party  rancor,  there 
were  found  those  who  dared  attempt  to  asperse  the  unsullied  name 
of  this  exalted  citizen,  the  instinctive  chivalry  of  the  whole  Amer 
ican  people  rebelled  against  the  foul  imputation.  It  was  during  this 
saddest  hour  of  the  night  of  his  life  I  saw  him  most  and  learned  the 
stuff  he  was  made  of.  Prior  to  this  his  friends  saw  the  danger  to  his 
life  by  his  continued  labor  in  the  public  service ;  but  he  seemed  to 
have  adopted  the  sentiment  of  the  Roman  patriot,  Necesse  uteam  non 
ut  vivam.  When  his  integrity  was  assailed  his  determination  was 
fixed  to  die  with  his  harness  on. 

What  a  spectacle  that  was!  Disease  had  marked  him  as  a  victim 
and  had  him  in  its  toils.  The  angel  of  death  had  kissed  his  wan 
cheeks  and  left  the  hectic  flush  there.  The  voice,  one  utterance  of 
which  was  once  a  command  to  silence  and  attention  to  listening 
Congresses  and  multitudes,  was  broken  and  gone.  His  palsied 
limbs  refused  longer  to  bear  the  burden  of  even  his  emaciated  body. 
He  was  almost  a  disembodied  spirit.  There  was  left  to  him  his 
indomitable  will,  which  seemed  to  refuse  submission  to  the  dominion 
of  death.  Sensible  of  his  danger,  and  sensitive  of  his  honor — the 
best  legacy  he  had  to  bequeath  to  wife  and  child — yet  conscious  of 
his  utter  helplessness  and  dependence,  he  felt  the  breath  of  political 
intrigue  and  slander  amid  the  very  ice  of  death  gathering  on  his 
face. 

"How  living  and  how  deep  the  wound"  of  such  assault! 

Like  a  giant  pricked  and  thrust  by  the  barbed  arrows  of  pigmies, 
he  writhed,  not  afraid  to  die,  but  craving  only  to  live  to  see  the  hour 
of  his  vindication.  That  hour  came  even  though  the  messenger  of 
death  waited  without. 


64  ADDRESS    OF    MR.    PHILIPS    ON    THE 

With  ray  good  friend,  the  honorable  member  from  Kentucky,  [Mr. 
BLACKBURN,]  I  called  at  his  sick  chamber  to  express  my  sympathy 
and  offer  my  congratulations.  It  was  our  last  interview.  His  eyes, 
in  which  the  fires  of  genius  yet  gleamed  as  if  inextinguishable, 
spoke  the  emotions  of  a  heart  too  full  for  utterance.  The  long, 
earnest  pressure  of  the  hand  once  so  warm,  but  now  almost  cold 
with  the  touch  of  death,  I  shall  never  forget. 

We,  young  and  ardent,  filled  to  overflowing  with  indignation  at  the 
wretch  who  had  attempted  to  swear  away  the  good  name  of  this  man, 
as  busily  as  the  two  men  of  Belial  swore  away  the  life  of  Naboth, 
suggested  that  he  be  prosecuted  and  punished  for  perjury.  With 
voice  broken  with  intervals  of  difficult  respiration  he  said,  "O,  no; 
that  poor  creature  is  unworthy  of  my  hate.  To  his  conscience  and 
God  we'll  leave  him.  I  am  in  no  condition  for  further  excitement. 
I  would  not  disturb  the  good  feeling  and  harmony  in  the  House 
over  my  unanimous  vindication  by  pursuing  the  matter  into  the 
courts." 

What  an  illustration  that  was  of  his  staid  judgment,  his  lofty  spirit, 
and  undisturbed  equipoise !  On  his  tomb  could  be  fitly  written,  as  a 
tribute  to  the  quality  of  his  mind,  Mens  aequa  in  arduis. 

His  star  of  life  sunk  ere  yet  it  had  reached  its  full  promise, 
Snatched  all  too  early  from  that  august  fame 
That  on  the  serene  heights  of  silvered  age 
Waited  with  laureled  hands. 

But  though  life  was  sweet  and  luring,  yet  he  so  died  that  nothing 
in  his  life  "became  him  like  the  leaving  it." 

In  the  old  State  of  Virginia,  the  home  and  resting-place  of  his 
great  political  mentor,  Thomas  Jefferson,  under  the  ceaseless  vigils 
of  wife  and  son  and  the  benisons  of  the  whole  Republic,  he  passed 
to  the  land  beyond  the  sea. 


LIFE   AND    CHARACTER    OF    MICHAEL   C.    KERR.  65 


OF    MR.    CARR,  OF   INDIANA. 

Mr.  SPEAKER  :  Standing  within  the  saddening  shadows  which  have 
fallen  upon  this  floor  from  the  broad  wings  of  the  angel  of  death, 
who  has  so  recently  and  so  unwelcomely  hovered  over  this  stately 
Hall,  and  amid  the  flood  of  silent  sorrows  which  pour  in  upon  us  on 
this  mournful  occasion,  it  is  with  great  depression  of  spirits  that  I 
essay  a  discharge  of  the  solemn  duty  I,  in  common  with  you  all,  owe 
the  distinguished  dead  whose  last  funeral  rites  we  perform  to-day; 
but  coming  into  this  Hall  as  I  do  to  fill  the  seat  upon  this  floor  made 
vacant  by  his  untimely  death,  and  from  the  large  constituency  which 
have  so  often  loved  to  honor  him  while  living  and  who  revere  his 
memory  when  dead,  it  were  eminently  proper  that  I,  in  my  own  be 
half  and  for  them,  should  add  my  assent  to  and  express  our  approval 
of  the  many  eloquent  but  truthful  eulogies  that  have  been  placed, 
like  fragrant  immortelles,  upon  the  casket  of  his  glorious  memory. 

For  the  first  time  in  the  history  of  our  Government  has  the  organi 
zation  of  the  House  of  Representatives  been  disturbed  and  its  mem 
bers  saddened  by  the  death  of  its  presiding  officer.  Though  often, 
far  too  often,  the  cold  hand  of  that  ever-unwelcome  visitor  has  been 
laid  upon  the  prominent  of  its  honored  members,  for  the  first  time 
has  he  stalked  silently  and  remorselessly  across  this  floor,  ascended 
to  that  exalted  chair,  and  stricken  with  his  chilling  and  killing  blow 
the  head  of  this  great  national  council ;  and  this  fact  should  give  a 
more  serious  current  to  our  train  of  thought  on  this  unusual  occasion. 

MICHAEL  C.  KERR  was  a  native  of  Titusville,  Pennsylvania,  where 
he  was  born  on  the  151!!  of  March,  1827.  His  parents  were  people  in 
moderate  circumstances,  and  of  that  old,  sturdy  Pennsylvania  stock 
whose  children  may  be  found  scattered  in  every  section  of  the  coun 
try,  giving  life  and  vitality  to  every  department  of  human  enterprise. 


9  K 


66  ADDRESS    OF    MR.    CARR   ON    THE 

He  was  chiefly  self-educated,  but  studied  at  the  Erie  Academy,  whence 
he  was  graduated  at  the  age  of  eighteen.  During  his  attendance  at 
the  academy,  Mr.  KERR  became  attached  to  Miss  Coover,  and  imme 
diately  after  his  graduation  married  her.  By  teaching  school  Mr. 
KERR  earned  the  means  to  defray  his  expenses  at  the  Louisville 
University,  where  he  received  the  degree  of  bachelor  of  laws  in  1851. 
In  1852  he  removed  to  New  Albany,  Indiana,  and  began  the  prac 
tice  of  law.  He  early  developed  those  traits  of  character  which  have 
since  made  him  an  enduring  name  among  his  countrymen.  He  was 
elected  attorney  of  the  city  of  his  adoption,  and  in  the  performance 
of  the  duties  intrusted  to  him  he  most  arduously  devoted  himself  and 
attracted  public  attention  to  his  abilities.  At  the  end  of  one  year's 
service  he  was  elected  prosecuting  attorney  for  the  county  of  Floyd, 
serving  in  that  capacity  but  a  single  year,  when,  in  1856,  he  was 
nominated  as  a  candidate  for  the  legislature,  and  in  the  October  fol 
lowing  was  elected.  It  was  during  this  year  that  attention  was  first 
attracted  to  his  powers  as  an  orator.  In  1862  he  was  elected  reporter 
of  the  supreme  court  of  Indiana,  and  while  occupying  the  position 
he  prepared  five  volumes  of  reports,  which  are  regarded  as  the  best 
of  the  entire  series  issued  from  that  court. 

The  effectiveness  of  Mr.  KERR  on  the  hustings  pointed  to  him  as 
the  leader  of  his  party  in  the  second  congressional  district  of  his 
adopted  State,  and  on  the  i2th  of  August,  1864,  the  district  congres 
sional  convention  at  JefFersonville  nominated  him  as  the  candidate  of 
his  party  to  represent  the  district  in  the  Thirty-ninth  Congress,  and  at 
the  October  election  following  he  was  elected  by  a  large  majority. 
Upon  taking  his  seat  in  Congress  he  was  assigned  to  two  committees 
of  the  House — Private  Land-Claims  and  of  Accounts — serving  with 
faithfulness  to  the  interests  of  the  public.  Again,  in  1866,  he  was  re 
turned  as  a  member  of  the  Fortieth  Congress,  and  served  on  the  Com 
mittees  of  Elections  and  Railways  and  Canals.  In  1868  his  con 
stituents  returned  him  as  a  member  of  the  Forty-first  Congress,  in 


LIFE    AND    CHARACTER   OF    MICHAEL    C.    KERR.  67 

which  he  served  as  a  member  of  the  Civil  Service  Committee,  and  it 
was  during  this  session  that  he  first  assumed  a  prominence  among  his 
colleagues.  In  1870  the  people  of  the  second  district  declared  him 
their  choice,  and  he  was  elected  by  the  usual  majority.  Upon  taking 
his  seat  in  the  Forty-second  Congress  he  was  placed  upon  the  Com 
mittee  of  Ways  and  Means.  During  the  two  following,  as  in  the 
preceding  two  years,  he  was  frequently  heard  upon  the  floor  of  Con 
gress  in  the  advocacy  of  sound  and  statesmanlike  views  upon  the  sub 
jects  of  the  currency  and  taxation,  and  in  opposition  to  every  species 
of  monopoly. 

In  1872  Mr.  KERR  refused  to  enter  the  canvass  for  the  nomination 
in  his  district.  But  at  the  meeting  of  the  State  convention  he  con 
sented  to  accept  the  nomination  for  Congressman  at  large,  but  was 
defeated  by  Hon.  Godlove  S.  Orth,  by  a  majority  of  only  126  votes 
in  the  entire  vote  of  the  State ;  but  he  was  only  two  years  out  of  the 
House,  coming  in  again  by  a  great  majority  in  1875,  when,  as  all  the 
country  remembers,  he  was  chosen  to  preside  over  the  deliberations 
of  the  body  of  which  he  was  conspicuously  and  confessedly  one  of 
the  ablest  members. 

MICHAEL  CRAWFORD  KERR  was  no  ordinary  man,  but  one  formed 
by  his  Creator  to  fill  an  important  mission  in  the  stirring  events  of  his 
stewardship  here,  and  to  this  end  he  was  endowed  with  clear  concep 
tions,  sound  judgment,  and  a  will  to  dare  and  do  that  which  his  con 
victions  conceived  to  be  right.  But  these  convictions  were  never 
hastily  nor  recklessly  formed.  In  the  investigation  of  a  subject  brought 
before  him  for  action,  calmness  and  deliberation  were  always  invoked, 
and  when  thus  a  conclusion  was  reached  no  sophistry,  no  mercenary 
motives,  no  sinister  influences  could  suffice  to  move  or  sway  him;  but 
there,  like  the  coast-rock  "beating  backward  the  surging  waves  of 
ocean,  he  stood,  fixed  and  immovable;  and  if  overpowered  by  supe 
rior  forces,  like  the  sturdy  oak  whose  head  is  bowed  by  the  hurtling 
tempest,  when  the  storm  had  passed  he  stood  erect  again,  conscious 


68  ADDRESS    OF    MR.    CARR   ON    THE 

of  the  correctness  of  his  views.  In  that  warfare  which  is  ever  being 
waged  between  the  principles  of  right  on  the  one  hand  and  the  errors 
of  wrong  on  the  other,  he  always  stood  the  unyielding  and  aggressive 
champion  of  honor  and  rectitude,  armed  with  a  falchion  whose  very 
brightness  dazzled  and  subdued.  Nor  did  he  wait  to  strike  until  the 
command  for  the  reserve  to  advance  was  passed  to  the  rear  of  the 
grand  army  of  noble  intellects;  but,  spurred  on  by  high  impulses  and 
nerved  by  exalted  instincts,  he  stood  in  the  foremost  ranks  with  his 
armor  ever  on  and  his  trenchant  blade  drawn  from  the  scabbard. 
Though  weak  in  physical  powers, 

*     *     His  mind 

Was  formed  to  combat  with  his  kind. 
Strong  in  his  will  and  of  a  mood 
Which  'gainst  the  world  in  war  had  stood 
And  perished  in  the  foremost  rank 
With  joy. 

It  is  not  strange,  therefore,  that  such  a  nature  scorned  to  be  led,  but 
was  proud  to  lead  where  honor  and  duty  blazed  the  way.  It  was  this 
which  restrained  him  from  yielding  to  the  mistaken  fancies  or  erring 

clamor  of  the  masses.     He  was  not 

*     *     *     That  soul 

Which  creeps  and  winds  beneath  the  mob's  control; 
That  courts  the  rabble's  smile,  the  rabble's  nod, 
And  makes,  like  Egypt,  every  beast  its  god. 

When  public  sentiment  was  right  he  was  foremost  among  its  advo 
cates,  but  when  wrong,  like  another  Socrates,  he  braced  himself  man 
fully  against  the  erring  flood.  In  this  he  was  truly  a  great  man.  The 
world  hath  need  of  all  such  noble  natures  which  God  hath  blessed  it 
with,  and  the  loss  of  his  self-sacrificing  patriotism,  his  exalted  pre 
cepts,  and  his  noble  example  is  irreparable.  When  he  fell,  the  ranks 
of  the  gallant  few  with  whom  he  fought  and  kept  the  faith  lost  a 
power  they  could  illy  spare,  and  where  he  fell  there  was  left  a 
vacancy  in  the  ranks  which  all  our  prayers  and  tears  for  the  regretted 
dead  can  never  fill. 


LIFE   AND    CHARACTER   OF    MICHAEL   C.    KERR.  69 

To  this  strong  characteristic  must  be  added  the  no  less  commenda 
ble  traits  of  character  which  everywhere  and  at  all  times  stamped  him 
as  a  man  pre-eminently  honest  and  pure.  Descended  from  an  ancient 
Highland  Scottish  clan  whose  name  he  bore,  he  seemed  to  have  in 
herited  largely  that  sturdy,  honest,  and  incorruptible  nature  which  so 
distinguished  the  Wallace,  the  Douglass,  the  Bruce,  and  the  Roderick 
Dhu  of  those  better  days.  This  attribute  so  inwrapped  him  like  a  robe 
as  to  shield  him  from  the  advances  of  the  mercenary  and  corrupt.  So 
strong,  so  marked  was  this  phase  of  character  that  in  a  long  and  active 
public  life,  in  which  the  bitter  animosities  of  rivals  and  political  ad 
versaries  were  often  excited,  but  once  was  an  assault  ever  made  upon 
it,  and  then  the  shafts  aimed  by  envy  and  propelled  by  base  designs 
fell  harmless  at  his  feet,  covering  his  accusers  with  confusion  and 
shame.  The  attempt  was  as  harmless  as  the  casting  of  a  toy-dart  at 
the  Colossus  of  Rhodes,  and  as  futile  as  an  attempt  to  darken  the 
heavens  with  a  miniature  cloud  of  dust.  The  investigation,  like  the 
testing  ordeal  for  the  purer  metals,  left  him  the  brighter  for  the  fric 
tion  and  the  more  universally  appreciated  for  the  seal  of  national 
approval  which  it  stamped  upon  his  immortal  memory.  To  lose  a 
public  man  with  two  such  rare  and  desirable  traits  of  character  in  times 
like  these,  when  the  fibers  of  our  free  institutions  seem  ready  to  burst 
asunder  from  the  increasing  strain  produced  by  the  degenerating 
tendencies  of  the  age,  adds  a  patriotic  poignancy  to  our  grief  and  an 
intensified  depth  to  the  shadows  of  a  nation's  sorrows,  which  shall  be 
lifted  only  when  the  sunlight  of  better  days  shall  dispel  the  dangers 
which  brood  over  us  like  the  menacing  hand  of  a  Nemesis. 

Bringing  into  his  public  life  and  places  of  trust  such  Spartan  vir 
tues,  it  is  not  surprising  that  he  so  rapidly  ascended  from  the  lowest  to 
the  highest  plane  of  prominence,  and  commanded  at  all  times  renewed 
and  increasing  confidence,  admiration,  and  preferment,  until,  caught 
up  in  the  ready  arms  of  an  approving  nation,  he  was  seated  in  that 
exalted  chair,  once  cccupied  by  America's  greatest  and  most  dis- 


7°  ADDRESS    OF    MR.    CARR   ON    THE 

tinguished  statesmen,  Trumbull,  Macon,  Dayton,  Clay,  and  Polk — a 
place  second  only  to  the  highest  honor  and  most  precious  gift  in  the 
power  of  this  Republic  to  bestow.  Here,  while  in  that  proud  position, 
presiding  over  the  councils  of  a  great  people,  shaping  the  legislation 
of  a  mighty  nation,  in  the  flood-tide  of  his  prosperity  and  usefulness, 
it  pleased  the  mighty  God  who  holds  alike  the  destinies  of  nations  and 
individuals  in  his  omnipotent  hand  to  remove  him  from  the  field  of 
his  labor  and  place  his  ashes  in  that  sacred  urn,  among  that  constel 
lation  of  statesmen  whose  names  are  inscribed  in  characters  of  never- 
fading  light  upon  the  tablets  of  our  history.  It  was  a  sad  bereave 
ment  to  his  afflicted  friends ;  it  was  a  national  misfortune,  but  we 
bow  in  meek  submission  to  the  decrees  of  that  superior  and  divine 
wisdom  which  "doeth  all  things  well." 

It  is  not  for  me  to  extol  the  labors  of  the  deceased  while  a  member 
and  officer  of  this  House.  That  task  were  more  fitly  done  and  has 
been  more  ably  performed  by  those  of  his  eloquent  colleagues  who 
have  preceded  me,  and  whose  encomiums  I  shall  bear  with  me  to  the 
bosom  of  his  immediate  constituency  with  a  just  pride  and  satisfac 
tion.  To  be  assured  that  throughout  all  his  congressional  career,  and 
much  of  it  embracing  the  darkest  hours  of  this  Republic,  he  occupied 
the  high  grounds  of  statesmanship,  and  never  for  once  descended  to 
the  level  of  the  mere  politician ;  that  his  utterances  were  ever  for  the 
needs  of  the  whole  country  and  were  never  circumscribed  by  the  de 
mands  of  mere  party ;  that  his  efforts  were  ever  for  the  great  good  of 
the  many  and  never  to  their  exclusion,  in  the  interests  of  the  few, 
confirms  the  conceptions  formed  of  him  at  home,  and  makes  universal 
the  picture  engraven  upon  the  hearts  of  his  own  people. 

While  the  deceased  stood  thus  distinguished  from  the  masses  of  men 
in  his  public  life,  in  his  private  virtues  he  was  pre-eminently  a  man — 
the  highest  and  best  type  of  man.  While  many  of  the  most  cele 
brated  characters  of  history  have  had  their  glories  dimmed  with  reflec 
tions  from  dark  spots  upon  their  private  lives,  Mr.  KERR  was  wholly 


LIFE   AND    CHARACTER    OF   MICHAEL   C.    KERR.  71 

free  from  any  great  private  fault  whose  presence  detracted  from  the 
public  esteem  in  which  he  was  held.  He  was  temperate  and  sober, 
honest  and  upright,  frugal  and  charitable,  generous  and  just,  con 
scientious  and  a  Christian,  a  warm  friend,  a  constant  husband,  and 
an  affectionate  father.  He  had  his  likes  and  dislikes,  but  they  were 
distributed  by  reason  and  controlled  by  causes.  He  had  his  partial 
ities  and  his  prejudices,  but  they  were  never  wholly  without  founda 
tion.  He  had  his  peculiarities,  but  they  never  approached  distaste 
ful  eccentricities,  and  with  all  the  details  of  character  the  aggregated 
whole  rendered  him  a  desirable  neighbor,  a  useful  citizen,  and  an 
esteemed  man. 

We  have  inadvertently  pronounced  him  dead.  True,  we  have  placed 
his  mortal  remains  in  the  tomb  of  his  fathers  and  his  ashes  are  min 
gling  with  the  dust  from  which  they  arose,  but  he  is  not  dead.  Such 
men  never  die.  There  has  been  a  change,  yet  it  has  been  one  in 
which  but  the  grossness  of  earth-life  has  been  swept  away,  leaving 
only  the  intellectual,  the  spiritual,  and  therefore  the  higher  and  purer 
life,  to  commune  with  us,  teach  us,  and  lead  us  onward  and  upward. 
He  lives  in  his  work  and  example;  nor  will  they  die  wholly  until  in 
the  dim  distance  of  future  time  the  obliterating  waves  of  oblivion 
shall  submerge  all  that  has  been  and  now  is,  and  the  dark  funeral  pall 
shall  be  thrown  over  the  glories  of  the  past  and  greatness  of  the 
present. 

As  a  proper  closing  of  these  solemn  ceremonies,  I  now  offer  the 
following  resolutions,  and  move  their  adoption : 

Resolved,  That  the  sad  announcement  of  the  death  of  MICHAEL 
C.  KERR,  late  member  from  the  State  of  Indiana,  and  Speaker  of  this 
House,  is  received  by  us  in  the  deepest  sorrow  and  profoundest  re 
gret,  and  that  in  his  untimely  decease  the  House  of  Representatives 
of  the  United  States  has  lost  an  impartial,  competent,  and  noble  pre 
siding  officer,  a  faithful  and  patriotic  member. 

Resolved,  That  in  testimony  of  our  respect  for  the  memory  of  the 


72  ADDRESS   OF    MR.    CARR. 

deceased  Speaker,  his  chair  be  draped  in  mourning  during  the  unfin 
ished  term  of  the  Forty-fourth  Congress,  and  as  a  further  evidence 
of  our  continuing  esteem  for  the  dead,  the  officers  and  members  of 
this  House  will  wear  the  usual  badge  of  mourning  for  the  space  of 
thirty  days. 

Resolved,  That  the  Senate  be  informed  of  the  death  of  the  late 
Speaker  by  forwarding  to  that  body  a  copy  of  these  resolutions,  and 
that  the  Clerk  transmit  a  copy  of  the  same  to  the  afflicted  family  of 
the  illustrious  dead. 

Resolved,  That,  as  a  further  tribute  of  respect  to  the  departed  offi 
cer,  this  House  do  now  adjourn. 

The  question  being  taken  on  the  resolutions,  they  were  unanimously 
adopted ;  and  accordingly  (at  three  o'clock  and  forty-five  minutes  p. 
m.)  the  House  adjourned. 


PROCEEDINGS     IN     THE     SENATE. 


TUESDAY,  February  27,  1877. 

Mr.  MCDONALD,  (at  eleven  o'clock  and  four  minutes  a.  m.)  I 
desire  to  call  up  the  resolutions  of  the  House  of  Representatives  in 
honor  of  the  late  Speaker,  MICHAEL  C.  KERR,  for  present  considera 
tion.  I  ask  that  the  resolutions  be  read. 

The  chief  clerk  read  the  resolutions  of  the  House  of  Representa 
tives,  as  follows : 

Resolved,  That  the  sad  announcement  of  the  death  of  MICHAEL  C. 
KERR,  late  member  from  the  State  of  Indiana  and  Speaker  of  this 
House,  is  received  by  us  in  the  deepest  sorrow  and  profoundest  re 
gret;  and  that  in  his  untimely  decease  the  House  of  Representatives 
of  the  United  States  has  lost  an  impartial,  competent,  and  noble  pre 
siding  officer,  a  faithful  and  patriotic  member. 

Resolved,  That  in  testimony  of  our  respect  for  the  memory  of  the 
deceased  Speaker,  his  chair  be  draped  in  mourning  during  the  unfin 
ished  term  of  the  Forty-fourth  Congress,  and,  as  a  further  evidence  of 
our  continuing  esteem  for  the  dead,  the  Officers  and  members  of  this 
House  will  wear  the  usual  badge  of  mourning  for  the  space  of  thirty 
days. 

Resolved,  That  the  Senate  be  informed  of  the  death  of  the  late 
Speaker  by  forwarding  to  that  body  a  copy  ef  these  resolutions,  and 
that  the  Clerk  transmit  a  copy  of  the  same  to  the  afflicted  family  of 
the  illustrious  dead. 


10  K 


74  ADDRESS    OF    MR.    M'DONALD    ON   THE 


ADDRESS  OF    MF^.    MCDONALD,  OF  INDIANA. 


Mr.  PRESIDENT  :  It  has  not  occurred  before  in  our  history  that 
upon  the  records  of  the  same  Congress  have  been  placed  resolutions 
of  respect  to  the  memories  of  the  presiding  officers  of  the  two  houses. 
Just  before  the  opening  of  the  first  session  of  the  present  Congress, 
and  while  many  of  its  members  were  on  their  way  to  attend  its  sit 
tings,  the  country  was  startled  by  the  news  of  the  death  of  the  Vice- 
President  of  the  United  States  and  President  of  the  Senate,  and 
before  they  had  all  reached  their  homes  at  the  close  of  the  session, 
another  national  loss  had  been  sustained  in  the  death  of  the  Speaker 
of  the  House  of  Representatives. 

In  uniting  with  the  House  in  doing  honor  to  the  memory  of  its 
late  chief  officer,  those  of  us  who  had  the  good  fortune  to  know  him 
well  can  bear  witness  to  the  great  loss  our  country  sustained,  taken, 
as  he  was,  in  the  meridian  of  life  and  in  the  midst  of  his  labors,  and 
also  of  that  great  bereavement  suffered  by  his  family  and  his  friends; 
for  while  by  his  laborious  and  faithful  discharge  of  the  public  duties 
intrusted  to  him  and  his  unbending  devotion  to  principle  he  had 
made  for  himself  a  position  in  the  front  rank  of  the  public  men  of  his 
country,  his  kind  and  gentle  nature  had  enshrined  him  the  idol  of  the 
social  and  domestic  circle  in  which  he  moved,  and  when  death  re 
moved  him  from  it  a  void  was  left  that  can  never  be  filled. 

MICHAEL  C.  KERR  was  a  native  of  the  State  of  Pennsylvania,  and 
was  born  at  Titusville,  in  that  State,  March  15,  1827,  but  about  the 
time  he  had  attained  his  majority  he  left  his  native  State  and  cast 
his  fortunes  in  the  then  great  West,  and  after  completing  his  legal 
studies,  by  graduating  in  the  law  department  of  the  Louisville  Uni- 


LIFE   AND    CHARACTER    OF    MICHAEL    C.    KERR.  75 

versity,  began  the  practice  of  his  profession  in  the  city  of  New  Albany, 
in  the  State  of  Indiana,  in  1852,  and  from  that  time  until  his  death 
he  was  a  beloved  and  honored  citizen  of  that  State  and  city.  He 
was  soon  called  into  public  life,  first  in  the  line  of  his  profession,  and 
gave  promise  of  attaining  to  its  highest  honors,  but  in  a  short  time 
was  elected  to  represent  the  county  of  Floyd  in  the  legislature  of  the 
State,  and  made  his  first  appearance  in  political  life  in  January,  1857, 
when  he  took  his  seat  in  that  body.  My  acquaintance  was  formed 
with  him  during  that  session,  and  it  grew  into  a  friendship  that  in 
creased  in  warmth  and  strength  to  the  day  of  his  death.  His  studi 
ous  habits  and  close  attention  to  the  duties  of  his  position  marked 
him  at  that  early  day  as  one  of  the  rising  young  men  of  the  State. 

In  the  fall  of  1864  he  was  elected  a  member  of  the  Thirty-ninth 
Congress  from  his  district  and  continued  to  serve  in  that  body,  with 
the  exception  of  the  Forty-third  Congress,  until  the  close  of  his  life, 
having  been  elected  its  Speaker  at  the  beginning  of  the  present  Con 
gress.  It  was  in  this  service  that  he  became  known  to  the  people  of 
the  whole  country  and  established  for  himself  a  national  reputation, 
and  it  was  in  the  laborious  discharge  of  the  duties  which  devolved 
upon  him  as  one  of  the  active  and  leading  members  of  that  body  that 
a  constitution  not  naturally  strong  was  impaired  and  the  seeds  of  dis 
ease  planted  which  brought  him  to  an  untimely  grave. 

Mr.  KERR  was  naturally  a  student,  and  his  mind  was  well  stored 
with  solid  and  substantial  facts,  especially  relating  to  the  science  of 
government  and  political  economy;  but  after  he  had  turned  his  at 
tention  to  politics  he  studied  with  great  care  the  political  history  of 
his  country  that  he  might  better  understand  the  frame-work  and 
structure  of  the  Government,  and  especially  those  elementary  prin 
ciples  which  underlie  that  structure.  In  his  public  life  as  an  actor 
he  always,  and  under  all  circumstances,  asserted  his  convictions. 
Few  men  possessed  a  moral  courage  equal  to  him  and  none  superior, 
and  no  apprehensions  of  the  loss  of  popular  favor  could  induce  him 


76  ADDRESS   OF    MR.    M*DONALD    ON   THE 

to  stifle  his  conviction  or  compromise  his  principles.  Indeed  it  may 
well  be  said  that  his  expressed  political  principles  were  at  all  times 
but  the  reflex  of  his  convictions.  Not  naturally  a  fluent  speaker,  yet 
by  study  and  practice  he  became  a  ready  and  strong  debater,  and  at 
times  his  earnestness,  almost  unconsciously  to  himself,  grew  into  elo 
quence;  but  his  constant  aim  was  to  convince  the  judgment  of  his 
hearers  and  never  to  influence  their  action  by  appeals  to  their  pas 
sions  or  their  prejudices. 

But  his  highest  qualities  were  exhibited  in  that  sublime  courage 
with  which  he  combated  the  steady  approach  of  death,  and  the  calm 
ness  with  which  he  looked  forward  to  the  fatal  hour.  Anxious  to 
live,  and  yet  with  a  painful  consciousness  that  his  days  were  num 
bered  and  that  no  mortal  hand  could  pluck  out  the  fatal  arrow  that 
Death  had  planted  in  his  system,  he  seemed  to  rise  above  all  fear  and 
to  move  forward  on  the  path  of  duty  with  a  courage  and  fortitude 
that  never  for  one  moment  faltered.  He  seemed  to  be  constantly 
saying  to  himself,  "  I  should  not  fear,  nor  yet  should  I  wish  for  my 
last  day  to  come;  and  until  it  does  come  I  must  not  be  idle  nor 
waste  my  time  in  vain  regrets."  And  so,  Mr.  President,  he  lived  and 
so  he  died — died  working  on  to  the  close  of  his  life. 

His  was  the  true  courage,  "  not  the  brutal  force  of  vulgar  heroes, 
but  the  firm  resolve  of  virtue  and  of  reason."  He  filled  every  station 
to  which  he  was  called,  public  and  private,  with  honor.  He  honored 
the  city  in  which  he  lived,  and  his  name  is  there  cherished  as  a  house 
hold  word.  He  honored  the  district  which  had  conferred  upon  him 
its  highest  favors,  and  his  memory  will  be  long  held  in  reverence  by 
his  people.  He  honored  the  State  of  his  adoption,  and  it  will  pre 
serve  his  name  upon  the  roll  of  its  most  illustrious  citizens.  He  hon 
ored  the  high  place  to  which  he  was  called  by  the  representatives  of 
the  whole  people,  and  for  that  we  this  day  place  his  name  "  in  me- 
moriam"  upon  the  records  of  the  Congress  of  the  nation,  there  to 
remain  for  all  time;  but  we  cannot  restore  to  his  family  and  friends 


LIFE    AND    CHARACTER    OF    MICHAEL   C.    KERR.  77 

the  light  and  life  that  went  out  from  them  when  he  was  called  from 
their  midst. 

Mr.  President,  I  send  to  the  desk  resolutions  for  adoption  by  the 
Senate.  I  will  state  that  the  resolution  in  regard  to  adjournment  is 
not  now  to  be  put.  /j 


L  ~v/  > 

^ADDRESS  OF    MR.   WALLACE,  of  PENNSYLVANIA. 

X/Vr>        '!/ 

Mr.  PRESIDENT:  It  is  fitting  that  we  of  Pennsylvania  should  secoi^J, 
these  resolutions  and  bring  our  tribute  to  the  worth  and  the  char-'  *  J 
acter  of  one  of  the  sons  of  her  soil.  MICHAEL  C.  KERR  was  a  type 
of  the  race  from  which  he  sprang.  The  physical  form  and  mental 
characteristics  of  the  man  both  proclaimed  that  he  was  one  of  those 
who  trace  their  lineage  and  their  ancestry  to  the  hills  of  Scotland. 
The  valleys  and  hills  of  Central,  Southern,  and  Western  Pennsylva 
nia  were  largely  peopled  by  them.  The  habits  of  life  and  the  modes 
of  thought  of  that  race  have  become  deeply  graven  upon  whole 
masses  of  our  people, -and  have  in  turn  impressed  themselves  upon 
every  section  of  the  Republic.  Wherever  this  people  have  planted 
themselves  within  our  borders,  there  are  found  prosperous  settlements, 
happy  homes,  and  peaceful  communities.  Indomitable  energy,  an 
iron  will,  economical  habits,  purity  of  character,  a  hatred  of  shams 
and  devotion  to  truth,  invariably  marked  the  best  specimens  of  the 
race,  and  nature  was  only  true  to  herself  when  she  stamped  these 
qualities  indelibly  upon  the  late  Speaker  of  the  House  of  Represent 
atives.  A  blameless  life,  intelligent  and  honest  performance  of  high 
public  duties,  the  respect  of  all  who  knew  him,  and  the  warm  attach 
ments  of  his  party  to  his  fortunes  as  a  safe  and  prudent  leader,  marked 
his  public  career.  As  I  learned  to  know  him,  no  trait  in  his  character 
was  so  clearly  defined  as  his  hatred  to  all  hypocrisy,  his  earnest  devo 
tion  to  truth.  He  seemed  to  recognize  this  as  the  chief  part  of  every 
virtue.  The  political  maxim  "that  those  who  know  not  how  to 


j 


78  ADDRESS    OF    MR.    WRIGHT    ON    THE 

dissemble  know  not  how  to  rule,"  found  no  believer  in  him.  The 
saying  of  the  ancient  Greek,  "it  was  for  slaves  to  lie  and  for  freemen 
to  speak  truth,"  was  much  nearer  his  political  creed  and  practice. 
Vigorous  in  speech,  logical  in  argument,  industrious  in  research,  and 
courteous  in  debate,  it  is  not  strange  that  he  should  come  to  be  recog 
nized  as  a  leader  in  the  Forty-first,  Forty-second,  and  Forty-fourth 
Congresses,  nor  is  it  surprising  that  with  this  purity  of  character  and 
party  record  he  should  be  chosen  to  the  high  place  in  which  death 
found  him. 

Standing  at  his  open  grave  we  acquire  a  profound  sense  of  the  fleet 
ing  character  of  earthly  honors  and  of  the  brittleness  of  the  thread  that 
suspends  us  over  the  dread  unknown.  To-day  it  is  life,  with  its 
glittering  trifles,  its  busy  cares,  its  choicest  gifts ;  to-morrow,  death, 
the  grave,  eternity. 

To  us  who  stand  where  he  stood — dedicated  to  the  public  service — 
the  record  of  this  man's  life  and  death  is  an  example,  clear,  well 
defined,  and  luminous. 

It  is  the  proud  record  of  an  honest  public  s'ervant. 


ADDRESS  OF  yVLl^  }V FLIGHT,  OF  JOWA. 

Mr.  PRESIDENT:  In  this  country  the  highest  type  of  American  man 
hood  and  in  the  very  forefront  of  the  nobility  of  mankind  may  be 
found,  not  infrequently,  those  who  in  early  professional  life  leave 
their  homes  in  New  England  and  other  States  and  identify  them 
selves  with  the  ever  alive,  adventurous,  and  stirring  people  of  the 
great  and  growing  West.  The  young  lawyer  in  this  grand  new 
arena,  with  prairies  boundless,  landscapes  unsurpassed,  all  the  ex 
periences  of  an  extensive  practice,  the  friction,  conflict,  and  yet  esprit 
de  corps  found  in  court  terms  and  court-room,  circuit-court  life,  cir 
cuit-court  travel,  circuit-court  acquaintance,  and  by  his  early  partici 
pation  in  political  and  all  the  contests  of  a  frontier  and  new  life — such 


LIFE   AND    CHARACTER   OF   MICHAEL   C.    KERR.  79 

a  person,  I  say,  finds  in  all  education  and  instruction,  and  soon  be 
comes  the  highest  type  of  the  western  and  American  statesman,  law 
yer,  and  citizen.  For  in  all  these  things  there  are  inspiring  and  ele 
vating  influences.  The  experiences  may  in  many  instances  be  hard 
and  unusually  severe,  but  the  young  disciple  of  the  law  thereby  passes 
"  through  the  rough  brake,"  and  thus  he  is  the  more  likely  to  "  come 
out  tried  and  true."  He  may  be  poor,  but  his  poverty  is  his  stimu 
lant;  he  may  have  trials,  but  these  are  for  his  purification;  he  meets 
with  reverses,  but  such  buffetings  make  him  even  more  a  power  in 
his  new  home;  he  meets  with  strong  opposition,  and  this  but  makes 
his  will-power  still  more  a  power;  and  thus  each  day  he  gives  renewed 
evidence  of  that  true  worth,  that  genuine  virtue  which  tells  upon  the 
destinies  of  senates,  the  commons,  the  people,  and  the  nation,  and 

which  oft  is 

Sooner  found  in  lowly  sheds, 

With  smoky  rafters, 
Than  in  tapestried  halls  and 

Court  of  princes. 

To  this  class  belonged  MICHAEL  C.  KERR,  the  true  lawyer,  the  ear 
nest  prosecutor  of  the  pleas  of  the  State,  the  careful  legislator,  the 
painstaking  reporter  of  the  decisions  of  the  highest  tribunal  of  his 
adopted  State,  the  modest  and  dignified  Representative  in  the  Con 
gress  of  the  nation,  the  impartial  and  able  presiding  officer  of  that 
body  where  he  was  for  years  among  its  leaders;  the  man  of  iron  will, 
uncorruptible  integrity,  a  noble  specimen  of  the  true  American  states 
man.  He  represented,  and  well,  the  State  which  I  am  but  too  proud 
to  acknowledge  as  that  of  my  birth,  the  land  of  my  early  struggles 
with  poverty,  the  State  which  by  its  kindly  legislation  afforded  to 
myself  as  well  as  others  the  means  for  an  education  which  might 
otherwise  have  been  unattainable,  the  State  to  which  I  shall  ever 
refer  with  the  gratitude  of  a  child,  and  to  his  memory,  as  the  chosen 
of  the  people,  I  would  assist  at  this  time  in  paying  some  humble 
tribute. 


8o 


ADDRESS    OF    MR.    WRIGHT   ON    THE 


It  was  said  of  the  deceased  that  he  seemed  to  have  little  special 
fitness  for  public  life ;  and  yet  that  he  not  only  never  attempted  the 
arts  of  the  demagogue,  but  loathed  them  in  his  inmost  soul;  that  he 
loved  his  profession,  the  lav/,  and  sought  its  honors;  that  his  opinions 
in  committee  and  elsewhere  were  those  of  the  jurist  and  not  of  the 
politician,  and  that  so  strong  was  his  will  and  so  absolute  were  his 
convictions  that  it  was  impossible  for  him  to  trim  or.  play  the  time- 
server.  Now,  Mr.  President,  if  such  a  man  had  not  special  fitness, 
entitling  him  to  the  highest  places  in  public  life,  then  my  ideas  of 
the  true  statesman  are  sadly  at  fault.  The  arts  of  the  demagogue 
are  not  those  of  the  statesman,  nor  do  they  ever  fit  a  man  for  that 
work  which  leads  to  the  upbuilding  of  humanity  and  the  highest  in 
terest  of  our  common  country.  In  proportion  as  the  man  in  public 
life  loathes  such  arts,  he  becomes  safe  and  wise  in  legislation  and  en 
titled  to  confidence  in  places  of  the  highest  trust.  And  so  firmly  im 
pressed  am  I  with  the  great  conservative  influence  of  the  true  lawyer, 
GO  often  have  I  been  led  to  bear  witness  to  the  worth  and  value  of  the 
able  and  thoughtful  jurist  in  matters  of  public  concern,  and  so  highly 
do  I  prize  the  man  who  stands  by  his  convictions,  not  to  be  turned 
aside  by  the  motives  influencing  the  trimmer  and  time-server,  that  I 
accept  such  men  as  having  admirable  fitness  for  public  life,  a  fitness 
which  leads  almost  necessarily  to  true  greatness,  a  fitness  which  places 
its  possessor  in  the  front  rank  of  the  profession  and  the  highest  states 
manship. 

The  life  and  character  of  MICHAEL  C.  KERR  bear  witness  that  he 
had  this  fitness  and  belonged  to  this  class.  In  proportion  as  we  shall 
have  such  men  we  shall  have  judicious  legislation  and  added  security 
to  our  country  and  its  institutions.  We  need  to  cast  out  all  dema 
gogues,  all  trimmers  and  time-servers,  all  acting  for  policy,  all  merely 
expediency  legislators,  all  letting  out  or  taking  in  sail  to  catch  the 
popular  breeze,  all  trembling,  uneasy  hands  with  fingers  upon  the  pub 
lic  pulse,  all  whose  courage  shall  be  measured  by  the  stock  market  or 


LIFE    AND    CHARACTER   OF    MICHAEL   C.    KERR.  8 1 

the  persistence  of  a  lobby,  and  install  in  their  places  those  who  know 
their  duty  and  do  it,  who,  defying  all  opposition,  move  unflinchingly 
to  the  fulfillment  of  every  trust,  and  who,  when  the  end  is  reached, 
the  result  attained,  feel  that  they  have  stood  by  the  cause  of  their 
country,  their  God,  and  truth. 

When  the  true  man  dies  the  world  should  indeed  mourn.  For  such 
the  Senate,  the  nation,  and  the  friends  of  good  government  mourn 
to-day.  He  succeeded  in  life  because  those  who  knew  him  had  con 
fidence  in  his  integrity  and  uprightness.  He  won  distinction  because 
he  industriously  studied  our  institutions  and  fearlessly  and  courage 
ously  maintained  his  views  upon  all  questions  demanding  his  atten 
tion.  He  took  the  highest  rank  because  he  marched  in  a  straight  line 
to  his  conclusions,  ever  exhibiting  judicial  fairness  and  the  most  un 
questioned  candor.  He  made  friends  because  he  had  great  good 
ness  of  heart,  because  to  those  who  knew  him  best  he  was  warm 
hearted,  kindly,  and  affectionate.  He  was  the  peer  of  the  noblest 
of  those  around  him  because  with  good  natural  ability  he  had  energy 
indomitable,  perseverance  unflinching,  convictions  the  most  abiding, 
and  ever  sought  to  make  honest  inquiry  for  truth. 

One  so  panoplied  and  so  endowed  could  not  but  succeed.  The 
world  owes  such  men  victory,  and  whether  the  debt  is  paid  grudg 
ingly  or  otherwise,  it  will  be  extorted,  and  it  were  idle  to  attempt  to 
withhold  it.  Wife,  children,  friends,  parties,  the  nation,  should  ever 
be  proud  of  one  so  gifted  and  rejoice  in  his  triumphs.  That  we  may 
be  led  to  cherish  his  virtues,  give  encouragement  to  all  to  emulate  his 
example,  and  enrich  our  own  hearts  by  the  memory  of  his  many  and 
varied  attainments  and  excellences,  it  is  meet  that  we  should  pause 
in  our  pressing  duties  and  look,  as  we  now  do,  upon  his  new-made 
grave,  cast  thereon  our  garlands  of  good-will,  esteem,  affection,  love, 
and  renew  our  assurance  of  profound  sympathy  and  condolence  for 
the  members  of  the  stricken  household  who  this  day  most  deeply 
mourn  his  loss. 


11    K 


82  ADDRESS    OF    MR.    DAYARD    ON    THE 


ADDRESS  OF    MF^.   BAYARD,  OF  DELAWARE. 

Mr.  PRESIDENT  :  I  never  knew  a  man  to  whom  indiscriminate 
eulogy  would  have  been  more  distasteful  and  repulsive  than  the 
straightforward,  single-minded  gentleman  whose  death  I  now  rise  to 
deplore.  Power  will  ever  have  its  parasites,  who  cling  to  it,  not  to 
aid  it,  but  to  suck  from  it  their  discreditable  sustenance.  What  the 
courtier  is  to  the  monarchy  the  demagogue  is  to  popular  govern 
ment. 

MICHAEL  C.  KERR  could  never  have  been  either. 

He  would  not  have  flattered  Neptune  for  his  trident, 
Or  Jove  for  his  power  to  thunder. 

He  would  have  told  the  truth  as  he  knew  it,  despite  the  frowns  of 
a  king,  and  with  equal  fidelity  would  he  tell  it  to  the  people,  even 
when  threatening  and  excited  by  misapprehension  and  urged  to 
harm  by  "false  prophets."  Mr.  KERR  was  one  of  the  quiet  workers 
of  Congress,  who,  remote  from  public  view,  in  those  places  where  the 
real  labors  of  legislation  are  performed  did  his  duty  in  steady,  pains 
taking  conscientiousness. 

The  incense  of  popular  applause  was  not  needed  to  urge  him  to 
his  work.  But,  whether  in  the  full  gaze  of  the  public  or  in  the  seclu 
sion  of  the  committee-room,  he  was  faithfully  occupied  in  the  per 
formance  of  his  duty. 

As  ever  in  the  great  Taskmaster's  eye. 

Thus  his  fame  burned  with  a  steady  luster;  and  as  his  reputation 
rose  its  base  broadened  upon  the  substantial  qualities  of  honesty, 
fidelity,  and  sterling  intellectual  capacities.  Although  a  vigorous 
and  impressive  debater,  his  gifts  were  not  showy  but  solid,  and  he 


LIFE    AND    CHARACTER    OF    MICHAEL    C.    KERR.  83 

forced  his  delicate  physique  unsparingly  to  make  these  gifts  most  use 
ful  to  his  fellow-men. 

Sure  the  eternal  Master  found 
His  single  talent  well  employed. 

I  served  here  in  Congress  with  Mr.  KERR  during  years  of  anxious 
and  critical  interest.  We  were  members  of  a  weak  minority,  and 
during  our  association  never  entered  upon  a  contest  in  these  halls  of 
legislation  without  plainly  discerning  at  the  end  of  the  struggle 
defeat  awaiting  us.  This  habitual  defeat,  while  it  did  not  diminish 
the  ardor  of  Mr.  KERR  in  pursuit  of  duty,  yet  wore  upon  his  physical 
health,  and  it  may  be  said  without  exaggeration  that  his  labors  in 
behalf  of  the  public  caused  his  premature  death. 

One  feature  of  the  pulmonary  disease  under  which  Mr.  KERR 
sank  is  a  hopefulness  on  the  part  of  the  sufferer  deluding  him  into  a 
belief  in  his  recovery,  even  to  the  last  faint  effort  of  expiring  nature. 
In  such  a  condition  of  health  he  went  into  the  high  place  of  Speaker 
of  the  House  of  Representatives  of  the  United  States  with  the  hand 
of  death  resting  upon  him,  unknown  to  him,  but  unhappily  visible 
to  those  who  surrounded  him.  His  fine  mental  powers  shone  undi- 
minished,  and  the  man  within  was  high-toned  and  true-hearted  as 
ever. 

I  well  remember  calling  upon  him  at  his  lodgings  in  this  city,  as 
he  lay  faint  and  gasping  for  breath  upon  his  couch,  and  when  that 
fell  spirit  of  slander,  "  which  loves  a  shining  mark,"  had  aimed  its 
relentless  and  poisoned  arrows  at  his  reputation,  I  took  his  wasted 
hand  in  mine  and  uttered  a  few  words  in  reference  to  the  shameless 
and  futile  assault,  dictated  by  the  unscrupulousness  of  partisan 
malignity.  His  answer  was  a  sad  smile  as  his  honest  eyes  looked 
into  mine,  and  a  pressure  of  the  hand  responded  to  the  unquestion 
ing  confidence  I  felt  and  had  expressed  that  these  dishonest  missiles 
of  political  assault  would  shiver  themselves  against  the  granite  base 
of  integrity  upon  which  his  life  was  built.  He  lived  to  see  his 


84  ADDRESS    OF    MR.    BOOTH    ON   THE 

slanderers  promptly  rebuked  by  the  unanimous  report  of  the  com 
mittee  appointed  by  the  House  to  investigate  the  charges,  condemn 
ing  his  accusers  and  exonerating  him  from  even  the  suspicion  of 
misconduct.  This  report  was  sustained  by  the  unanimous  vote  of 
the  House  and  the  voice  of  honest  men  of  all  parties  in  every  part 
of  the  Republic.  Tlie  closer  the  scrutiny  the  more  the  moral  worth 
of  the  man  became  apparent.  His  death  was  a  loss  to  his  country; 
his  example  should  be  cherished,  and  the  memory  of  his  life  and 
character  be  embalmed  in  the  affection  and  respect  of  the  American 
people, 


ADDRESS    OF    yVLR.    JBOOTH,    OF 

Mr.  PRESIDENT  :  The  conditions  of  American  life  change  so 
rapidly  that  representative  types  of  American  character  are  not  likely 
to  be  reproduced.  Franklin,  Samuel  Adams,  Washington,  Jackson, 
Clay,  Lincoln,  will  have  no  historical  parallels.  The  race  of  western 
pioneers  will  soon  be  as  extinct  as  the  Puritans,  and  will  have  no 
successor. 

Modern  life,  so  abounding  in  the  use  of  tools,  machinery,  and 
intellectual  aids,  is  not  favorable  to  the  formation  of  individuality  of 
character,  and  native  individuality  must  be  strong  to  survive  the 
repressive  influence  of  custom  and  conventionalism.  The  character 
of  MICHAEL  C.  KERR  was  so  strongly  marked  that  a  stranger  meet 
ing  him  on  the  street  would  have  received  a  distinct  impression  of 
the  man. 

His  public  career  needs  little  reference  from  me.  It  was  not  my 
fortune  to  know  him  personally  until  the  last  year  of  his  life — 
when  the  shadow  of  the  dark  valley  was  already  upon  him.  How 
he  struggled  with  pain  and  disease;  how  his  iron  will  supplied  the 
place  of  physical  strength,  and  forced  his  tired  body  to  bear  the 


LIFE    AND    CHARACTER    OF    MICHAEL   C.    KERR.  85 

burdens  of  his  great  office,  until  his  breath  grew  too  short  for  utter 
ance  and  his  feet  too  weary  to  bear  their  load,  is  known  to  us  all. 

The  fortitude,  endurance,  courage,  patience  which  he  evinced  in 
this  struggle  were  typical  of  his  character.  He  knew  that  death 
would  conquer,  but  he  fought  for  every  inch  of  time.  He  had  never 
counted  the  odds  in  any  contest,  and  he  would  not  even  when  the 
grim  monster  was  his  antagonist.  Life  with  him  was  so  earnest,  that 
even  sickness  brought  no  respite  from  labor  and  responsibility. 

Almost  the  whole  of  his  manhood  was  spent  in  public  office,  and 
he  died  poor  in  worldly  goods,  as  most  men  do  who  devote  them 
selves  to  the  public  sen  ice.  He  was  careful  in  all  the  details  of  his 
duties.  He  never  spared  himself,  and  nothing  was  so  minute  as  to 
escape  his  conscientious  attention;  nothing  which  pertained  to  duty 
was  insignificant  in  his  eyes. 

His  purposes  were  so  intense,  that  I  think  his  life  was  serious 
even  to  sadness.  Pursuing  his  own  line  of  thought,  amusements 
and  society  had  little  attraction  for  him.  He  was  fond  of  general 
literature,  but  disciplined  his  taste  even  in  that  to  make  it  tributary 
to  the  main  purpose  of  his  life.  He  was  slow  in  forming  his 
opinions,  but  once  formed  they  were  a  part  of  his  life.  No  one  can 
penetrate  the  inner  life  of  another  and  realize  the  long  preparation, 
the  conflict  of  doubt,  the  struggle  of  intellect,  the  throes  of  thought 
which  precede  the  opinion  so  positive  in  utterrance,  or  the  decision 
that  seems  instant  as  lightning  when  occasion  comes. 

In  the  discharge  of  his  public  duties  Mr.  KERR  was  never  moved 
by  the  pleadings  of  immediate  special  interests,  however  powerful  or 
plausible,  to  neglect  or  betray  the  interests  of  the  people  from  whose 
loins  he  sprang,  whose  burdens  he  respected.  He  would  not  yield 
to  the  solicitings  of  friendship,  the  blandishments  of  flattery,  or  the 
temptations  of  interest.  He  was  almost  destitute  of  imagination, 
and  had  little  enthusiasm,  but  his  intense  earnestness  gave  to  his 
utterances  a  fervor  that  had  the  semblance  of  both.  He  never 


86  ADDRESS  OF  MR.  MORTON  ON  THE 

sought  the  easy  way  of  doing,  but  instinctively  took  hold  of  the 
heavy  end.  Life  with  him  meant  work,  not  dalliance]  duty,  not 
pleasure, 

With  his  opinions  on  the  great  questions  that  culminated  in  and 
grew  out  of  our  civil  war,  I  differed  toto  ccelo.  They  are  differences 
I  gladly  forget  at  his  grave.  Cannot  we  all  now  allow  these  differ 
ences  to  be  buried  in  the  grave  of  the  past  ?  Can  we  not  regard  the 
conflict  through  which  we  have  passed  as  an  inevitable  event  of 
history  which  no  statesmanship  could  avert,  and  respect  its  awful 
loss  of  life  as  a  common  sorrow,  a  sacrifice  which  fate  had  decreed 
to  liberty  and  union  ? 

If  we  cannot;  if  strife  must  perpetuate  itself  and  passion  harden 
into  hatred,  the  sun  of  our  national  existence  which  rose  upon  so  fair 
a  morn  will  be  hidden  by  clouds  and  go  down  in  tempests. 

In  times  of  great  political  excitement  like  these,  the  man  who  dies 
in  public  station  falls  like  the  soldier  in  the  heat  of  battle;  when  the 
lines  close,  comrades  press  forward,  and  the  fight  goes  on.  In  the 
distant  home  something  passes  from  the  life  of  love  which  was  most 
dear  to  it,  and  which  nothing  that  is  or  shall  be  can  ever  replace. 
We  miss  the  voice  that  was  strong  in  debate;  others,  the  tones  that 
were  tender  with  love.  A  m-anly  presence  has  gone  from  our  midst; 
the  footsteps  that  gladdened  a  home  have  gone  down  to  the  grave. 

The  tribute  of  respect  which  we  pay  seems  formal  from  oft  repeti 
tion;  there  is  a  sorrow  which  is  speechless,  a  grief  which  is  tearless. 

Thus  through  life  every  heart  must  bear  its  own  sorrow,  its  own 
grief,  its  own  precious  memory,  sanctuaried  from  the  eye  of  curiosity, 
where  the  voice  of  sympathy  cannot  reach,  and  the  touch  of  healing 
cannot  come. 

^.DDF^ESS    OF     yVlR.    ^MORTON,     OF    JNDIANA. 

Mr.  PRESIDENT:  I  have  known  Mr.  KERR  since  1861.  Our  per 
sonal  relations  were  never  intimate.  We  were  never  thrown  together 


LIFE    AND    CHARACTER    OF    MICHAEL   C.    KERR.  87 

in  any  way.  I  met  him  from  time  to  time  and  have  been  familiar 
with  his  political  history  and  reputation. 

We  lived  .in  a  State  somewhat  distinguished  of  late  years  for  the 
bitterness  of  its  political  contests.  While  he  and  I  were  on  different 
sides,  yet  our  personal  relations  were  always  good,  and  I  now  take 
pleasure  in  bearing  testimony  to  his  memory. 

The  character  of  Mr.  KERR  for  integrity  has  never  been  impeached. 
Some  charges  that  were  recently  made  against  him  since  he  was 
Speaker  of  the  House  of  Representatives  were  not  believed  at  all  by 
his  political  antagonists.  I  can  say  that  the  republicans  of  Indiana 
did  not  believe  these  charges.  I  did  not,  and  it  may  be  said  that  Mr. 
KERR'S  character  for  integrity  has  never  been  impeached  or  suspected. 
I  take  pleasure  in  bearing  testimony  to  his  high  character  as  an  hon 
est  man.  Mr.  KKRR  has  always  been  regarded  as  occupying  a  higher 
plane  of  politics  than  most  politicians.  He  has  been  regarded  as  a 
man  who  was  devoted  to  principle  and  who  pursued  principles  to 
their  logical  results.  Intellectually  he  was  very  able;  a  man  of  fine 
ability.  He  was  a  student.  He  has  always  been  regarded  as  labo 
rious.  Especially  was  he  a  student  of  political  economy.  He  was 
much  better  acquainted  with  the  principles  of  political  economy  than 
most  men  in  public  life.  He  has  made  them  his  study  for  years. 
He  was  always  regarded  as  a  student,  with  a  fine  knowledge  of  gen 
eral  literature  and  of  history,  but  especially  a  student  in  all  those 
branches  of  knowledge  relating  to  politics  and  the  Constitution  of  his 
country.  His  name  will  be  remembered  with  pride  and  with  affection 
in  Indiana.  He  was  one  of  her  most  highly  favored  and  gifted  sons, 
and  it  gives  me  satisfaction  to  bear  testimony  to  his  patriotism.  I 
believe  he  was  a  devout  lover  of  his  country  and  went  for  that  which 
he  believed  was  for  the  best.  I  have  always  given  him  credit  for  his 
integrity,  for  his  patriotism,  and  for  love  of  his  country,  and  the 
strongest  testimony  which  I  can  bear  to  the  character  of  Mr.  KERR 
is  to  say  that  he  was  regarded  by  men  of  all  parties  in  Indiana  as  an 


ADDRESS    OF    MR.    MORTON. 


honest  man,  an  able  man,  a  patriotic  man,  and  that  his  death  was 
mourned  by  all  his  neighbors  and  by  all  who  knew  him,  without  dis 
tinction  of  party. 

In  some  respects  he  was  a  remarkable  man.  His  ability  was  not 
of  the  common  order,  and,  as  was  said  by  the  Senator  from  Delaware, 
[Mr.  BAYARD,]  it  was  more  solid  than  it  was  showy,  with  a  great 
power  of  analysis  and  with  great  capacity  for  labor.  But  few  public 
men  have  died  who  have  left  behind  them  a  clearer  or  a  better  record 
than  MICHAEL  C.  KERR,  and  he  died  possessing  the  esteem  of  good 
men  without  distinction  of  party. 

The  PRESIDING  OFFICER.  The  Clerk  will  now  report  the  resolu 
tions  offered  by  the  Senator  from  Indiana,  [Mr.  MCDONALD.] 

The  Chief  Clerk  read  as  follows  : 

Resolved,  That  the  Senate  has  received  with  profound  sensibility 
the  sad  announcement  of  the  death  of  Hon.  MICHAEL  C.  KERR,  late 
a  member  of  the  House  of  Representatives  from  the  State  of  Indiana, 
and  Speaker  of  that  House. 

Resolved,  That  as  a  mark  of  the  respect  entertained  by  the  mem 
bers  of  the  Senate  for  the  high  character,  pure  patriotism,  and  emi 
nent  public  services  of  the  late  Speaker  of  the  House  of  Representa 
tives,  they  will  wear  the  usual  badge  of  mourning  for  thirty  days. 

The  resolutions  were  agreed  to  unanimously. 


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